PERMANENT Secretary within the Ministry of Business, Ms Rajbai Jagarnauth, has expressed satisfaction at the sensitisation session that was held recently at her ministry’s boardroom in collaboration with the Government Analyst – Food and Drug Department. The session was facilitated by Director of GA-FDD, Marlon Cole, who went through a number of issues in bringing both importers and exporters up to scratch.

Jagarnauth, while speaking to the media, said the session was geared towards clarifying a number of issues, while advising them on the laws that are in place to address such issues, rules and regulations, while at the same time gathering their own interpretation. She said that there is an evident disconnect as it relates to interpretation.
The Ministry of Business PS said that she was confident that based on the responses, she firmly believed that the participants have been able to walk away with valuable information that they needed. “I believe that they have walked away with a clearer understanding from the agency perspective as to how the law works and applies, which would have served the intended persons,” she said.

She noted that she was extremely satisfied with the turn-out, stressing that the numbers exceeded her expectations of persons whom she thought would have attended. This, she noted, helps as they seek to ensure that the information is widely distributed.
Speaking about her ministry’s mandate, the PS said, “Part of the ministry’s mandate is to facilitate business and business development. We have been doing some level of awareness and consultation at the department of commerce level and we plan to do more focused training and education, including the awareness for importers and other stakeholders.” She stressed that her ministry has an aggressive plan in enhancing business development and growth, noting that regardless of the size of business, they will seek to provide the relevant advice and assistance in further growing it.

She spoke about the need to provide the relevant support to young persons with an interest in starting their own businesses. The PS said that while her ministry would not directly provide the relevant support and assistance, the Small Business Bureau had been empowered to do such. “The Small Business Bureau that does a number of training of young entrepreneurs and skills development, they have been doing some amount of training. The Small Business Bureau is an arm of the Ministry of Business, she said.
She added, “The department will be doing other specific forms of follow-up as well. The Department of Commerce as well we have the Department of Industry and while there are working with industrial estate development, there will be some level of awareness and guidance in terms of business development.

In a reference to a number of other collaborative projects, the Permanent Secretary said, “We are trying to build a relationship with all the agencies that are involved in…for example the processing of licences for the importation and or exportation of goods.”

She added, “We have been working at the ministry with the agencies to introduce what you call the single window and I think Customs and GRA have been key players in this regard; so not only the government agency but GRA will be integrally involved as well.”
PS Jagarnauth disclosed that an aggressive approach has been embarked upon by her ministry with relation to expanding the work of seeking to further enhance business. “…and that is something we have started to work with and that will be continued in an aggressive manner, because it’s something that we want to bring on stream as quickly as possible. We have to also take note of the pace of development and of how computerised the agencies are to bring that system on stream, because it’s not something that we at the ministry can do by ourselves,” she explained.

PS Jagarnauth spoke about plans within the ministry to advance the quality and level of service that is given to the public. She spoke about plans to computerise a number of services, thus enhancing the quality and delivery of services adding that while the implementation will take a while, she was confident that a number of things would be done in the meantime. “For instance, if we can receive applications on line and send them to the various agencies for processing electronically, so the handling of the paper procedures can be reduced, that is our long-term objective, but we have started the process and we are hoping to get there very soon,” she concluded.