Real statistics needed on the MSME sector- Stanberry

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Donovan Stanberry and president, Small Business Association of Jamaica (SBAJ), Hugh Johnson sign a Memorandum of Understanding between MICAF and the SBAJ at the launch of the Inaugural Caribbean MSME Conference, held at the Spanish Court hotel, New Kingston, on Thursday, May 25, 2017. Seated at Mr. Stanberry’s left is chief executive officer, RJR Gleaner Communications Group, Gary Allen and standing at back (from left) are assistant general manager, Jamaica National Limited, Leon Mitchell; project coordinator, Jamaica Venture Capital Fund, DBJ, Audrey Richards; and director, SBAJ, Garnett Reid.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture, and Fisheries, Donovan Stanberry says that there is a need for real statistics on the MSME sector as data is now being garnered from tax rolls and all kinds of proxies.

“I think that one of the urgent imperatives of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries is to provide that mechanism where we can, in fact, have statistics on this important sector. How many people are involved, what are they involved in, what kind of employment they are creating, how are they contributing to the Gross Domestic Product, what are their issues - we need the statistics”, the Permanent Secretary declared.

Mr. Stanberry was representing the Hon. Karl Samuda, Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries at the media launch of the Caribbean MSME Conference at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston, on Thursday, May 25, hosted by the Small Business Association of Jamaica in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries.

The inaugural Caribbean MSME Conference will be held July 19-22, 2017, at the Hilton Rose Hall, Montego Bay.

Mr Stanberry stated, further, that the Ministry needs to work with the Small Business Association in the same way that we work with the Jamaica Agricultural Society with a registry of farmers. He said that we need to have a united approach in the same way we are structured for our farmers and, bring together all our experience across the various sectors.

“Government can only provide support when we know what is there, when we have the numbers, because we really want the SBAJ to work with us in that regard. You can get proxies from the Companies Office of Jamaica and from the tax roll, but we want a more deliberate effort to be able to scope out the range, size and the importance of the sector”, Mr. Stanberry further stated.

The Permanent Secretary also made reference to his trip to an MSME Conference in Mexico last week. “I felt a little embarrassed because country after country could stand up and say with a level of certainty and definitiveness that this is the scope of my MSME sector, ten thousand (10,000) people, forty thousand (40,000) people contributing to GDP and, the number of persons employed in the sector”, he stated.

He lauded the work of the Jamaica Business Development Corporation for its role in providing business support development to businesses in Jamaica.

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