—with expansion of business centre

THE Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) has expanded its business centre, providing 18 more rooms to be utilised by entrepreneurs and other commercial entities.
This expansion was welcomed by the Ministry of Finance, of which LEN is a subsidiary.

Commending the company at Friday’s launch for taking such a bold initiative was Finance Secretary Dr. Hector Butts, who said that the expansion is a testimony of the management’s commitment to provide more services for Linden, and that it comes at a time when the town is in dire need of growth and development.

“This extension comes at a prudent time in the growth and development of our economy, in which we are looking towards low carbon development strategy while at the same time looking towards exploiting growth, based on revenue coming from hydrocarbon,” Dr Butts said, in obvious reference to plans afoot to have the entire expanded complex utilise solar panels as a form of renewable energy.

To undertake the project, LEN was given a total of $51M between 2017 and 2018, and 90 per cent of the materials used on the building were sourced from Linden, which is another move to allow the monies to circulate within the town.
Pledging the ministry’s continued commitment to LEN, Butts urged the company to continue spreading its wings and providing the kind of services that will get Linden back on its feet.

“The Ministry of Finance will continue its best efforts to commit to Linden and Region 10,” Dr. Butts said.
LEN’s mission is to provide micro-financing to small business in Linden, especially those into agro-processing, in an effort to diversify the economy.

Dr. Butts said that even with the promise of oil, diversification is necessary and therefore LEN must not lose sight of its role. “We must not lose sight that oil cannot replace the need for continued diversification;we should not only focus on the resource development, but on other development to sustain us such as manufacturing, value added, agriculture,” he said.
He also touched on Linden’s tourism sector and urged LEN to think seriously about moving in that direction.

He is optimistic that LEN’s expansion of assets will be so great that it will soon have subsidiaries of its own.
“LEN would grow so big that it would not be able to manage what it has,” Dr Butts said, adding:

“As such, it may be possible for LEN to invite the private sector to become shareholders.”
In closing, he urged the company to continue along the path of transparency and accountability, and its stakeholders in Linden to keep them in check.

In addition to the provision of business incubators and micro-business loans,LEN last week launched its low-income housing project.
The organisation also provides technical and other support to entrepreneurs and farmers. Since 2015, the government has been pumping millions of dollars into LEN. Prior to that, it was basically surviving on its own.