The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor A GOVERNMENT minister says he is "reasonably certain" that broad consultation with stakeholders on the much-awaited Small and Medium-Sized Business (SME) Development Bill can be held prior to the general election, saying there was "no question" the proposed legislation would aid the sector's growth. While unable to say "one way or the other" whether the Bill would make it to Parliament in the limited time before the general election, given that the matter was for the Cabinet to decide, Zhivargo Laing, minister of state for finance, said it was more important to get the Bill right than for its timetable to be impacted by political considerations. Acknowledging that the Ingraham administration had to "re-group at the beginning of the year and determine what is do-able and not do-able" when it came to its remaining legislative agenda, Mr Laing said that while there had been extensive input from the likes of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on the Bill, broader consultation with the SME community had yet to take place. "There is still a need to have this broader consultation with the small and medium-sized business community to review it," Mr Laing told Tribune Business, "and the idea is to have a forum throughout the islands where that broad discussion can be held. "That's very necessary for this kind of legislation, and I'm reasonably certain these discussions can be had prior to the election. We want to make sure the people more directly impacted by it have more understanding of the conceptual framework being proposed. I'm prepared to go at a slower rate to have that happen." The minister explained that business owners in the Bahamian SME community were likely to have "some very good recommendations beyond what we have received" from the BCCEC, IDB and their representatives, and wanted to give these an opportunity to influence, and be included, in the Bill. Mr Laing indicated to Tribune Business that it was immaterial whether the Bill made it to Parliament before the general election or after, implying that its contents were good enough to survive the test of time and potential changes in government. "It's doing the right thing," he explained. "If that happens before, it if happens after, I think what we've proposed and put forward will be helpful to the small and medium-sized business community. I have not question about that. I earnestly think it is." However, Mark Turnquest, head of Mark A. Turnquest Consulting, was adamant in telling Tribune Business that the Small and Medium-Sized Business (SME) Development Bill "will not make" the Parliamentary agenda prior to the 2012 general election. He said he was basing this on the outcome of a meeting he had with Mr Laing three weeks ago, and with the election intervening, this meant there would "be no economic development in this country before November next year". This was because the election victor would still be in its 'honeymoon' period, and Mr Turnquest said of his discussions with Mr Laing: "He told me three weeks ago that it [the Bill] can't, because it's taken too long. "The small business community is right back to where we were in 2006-2007 before the election. There's no plan and action for our future, and if the FNM loses the election, their whole strategy will be thrown in the garbage. We're back to where we were in the past, and that's the problem." Suggesting that neither the FNM, nor the PLP or DNA, had a "vision" for small business development in the Bahamas, Mr Turnquest added: "Small business in the Bahamas is trying to hold its own, but when it comes to development strategies, we need assistance." An IDB study of the Bahamian small and medium-sized business community, previously reported by Tribune Business, found that despite accounting for just over 90 per cent of all companies domiciled in this nation, SMEs collectively generated just 5 per cent of its annual gross domestic product (GDP). Mr Laing, meanwhile, told Tribune Business that the Bill's support and facilitation framework was designed to give Bahamian SMEs "outreach" capabilities, enabling them to market their products and services beyond this nation's borders. "Our determination to grow this economy, and grow it more rapidly than it has been growing, has to be tied to more investment, including inward investment, but we also want to provide stability, impetus and growth for the small and medium-sized business population," the minister said. "Not just serving the community in the Bahamas, but improving their outreach to markets outside and putting them in standing to reach a far more global population, both from within and outside the Bahamas." Mr Laing conceded that for this to happen, "a level of support" that encompassed areas such as administration, technology, financing and general business approach was required. Marketing and research and development (R&D) might also be required by others. This, Mr Laing said, had "to be part and parcel" of any SME strategy. "The Bill tries to create a facilitating framework and institutional support that provides all of that," he added. "We've looked at every concern that has ever been expressed by SMEs in the country. We've looked at the research done by international organisations like the IDB, the experience of the Government in trying to support SMEs over the years. "We've looked at how that support has translated, effectively or ineffectively, to growing the SME population. We've tried to create a framework that takes the best observations from all of that, and harness that in a way to assist SMEs going forward, with an important caveat being that that assistance should be driven by a facility that is meaningfully led by private sector personalities."