Business incubators to come on stream in 2019 – SBB

Two business incubators – one at Lethem, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and Belvedere Industrial Estate, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) – are expected to come on stream in the new year to nurture micro and small businesses in those regions.
This is according to Small Business Bureau (SBB) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Lowell Porter.
“Coming for 2019, we want to have those incubators up and running. We also want to have security for those, because it is important that we have people who will protect those buildings,” Dr Porter disclosed during the Bureau’s year-end press conference last week.
The business incubators aim to provide appropriate spaces for businesses to engage in certain types of activities and attract investments in the value-added sectors as well as service sector. These facilities will facilitate the start-up of small businesses for the first three years to ensure that they can sustain themselves afterwards.
They will take away some of the responsibilities which new entrepreneurs will have such as research, marketing and all these services, thus guaranteeing them a better opportunity of succeeding.
Among the facilities that will be offered by the business incubators to budding entrepreneur are: space, equipment and services such as training, marketing, consulting, organisation, and management as well as legal, financial and other advisory services.
This project falls under the purview of the Business Ministry, which has done extensive research on the need for such a facility, and will be managed by the SBB.
The construction of these two facilities is currently underway. In fact, only in October, Business Minister Dominic Gaskin went to the National Assembly and got $193 million in supplementary funding to facilitate payments under the Lethem and Belvedere Industrial Development projects. Gaskin had explained that the money was needed, based on the significant advancement of infrastructural works and the need for another access road to the business incubator at Lethem.
In the 2018 Budget, some $350 million was allocated for the completion of works on the Lethem Industrial Estate and the Belvedere Industrial Estate this year. These facilities are expected to have a combined capacity of about 250 to facilitate value-added production while benefiting from economies of scale.
In fact, Finance Minister Winston Jordan had stated that support to micro and small businesses will continue next year through the creation of additional business incubators and accelerators, in Regions Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), at a cost of $36 million.
“These structures will foster the growth of businesses by facilitating the provision of support services, such as business registration, documentation, and capacity building. Further, through the establishment of business registration hubs, like the one opened in Lethem (Region Nine) this year, and the upcoming one in Mahdia (Region Eight), we will continue to improve the ease of doing business. In 2018, four other business registration hubs will be established in Regions One, Five, Six and 10,” the Finance Minister further stated.