A MERE 0.7 PER CENT projected growth for the Barbados economy in 2013 should serve as a wake-up call to all sectors.
Furthermore, Lynette Holder, chief executive officer of the Barbados Small Business Association (SBA), said more proactive approaches were needed to reposition the local economy and place it back on a strong growth path.
In addition, the small business advocate said more attention should be placed on developing areas in the SME sector to help it diversify and become more sustainable.
She spoke to BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY in response to the recently released 2012 Barbados economic review delivered by Central Bank Governor Dr DeLisle Worrell.
In his report, Dr Worrell said the Barbados economy recorded zero per cent growth for 2012 and they were forecasting only 0.7 per cent growth for this year.
Noting that she was hoping for higher growth, Holder said: “A 0.7 per cent growth, in light of what has been happening in previous years, is still not necessarily going to bring us out of the position that we are in. It is a wake-up call.”
“Our concern really is that we have not been seeing the kind of proactive response in repositioning the economy to put us on the path of growth that we need to be on,” added Holder.
Outlining some measures that should be taken to stimulate growth and assist the sector, Holder said it was okay to maintain a good relationship with major trading partners but more should be done in the areas of e-commerce, technology, agriculture, and business facilitation to better assist the local SME sector.
“I am still not satisfied that enough entrepreneurship research and development is being done by our premier education institution. These are the kind of things we really need to do to make sure that our SME sector has the potential for growth in the future.” (MM)
