Last year, the Prime Minister launched his administration's Belize Investment Summit, and last month, the government launched the National Investment Policy and Strategy.
But it's not all about the big, shiny wheels of foreign direct investment, the gears of the economy really click along when MSME's - micro, small and medium enterprises provide the forward momentum. Those businesses that make up the vast majority of the country's economy, and today, the government officially launched its MSME Roadshow to put them front and center.
7News attended, and Daniel Ortiz has that story:
As part of their focus on micro, small and medium-sized business enterprises, the Briceno Government is launching a new program that works similar to the Mobile Land Clinics.
It's called the MSME Road Show, and in a series of visits countrywide, the Economic Development Council and the Office of the Prime Minister will provide aid to entrepreneurs in different parts of the country who are struggling to make it in these challenging economic times.
MSMEs make up more than 90% of Belize's economy, and so, to demonstrate the government's commitment to a healthy business environment, Briceno wants to provide as much government support as possible.
Narda Garcia - CEO, Office of the Prime Minister
"The National MSME Roadshow will run from August to November 2022, culminating with this year's Entre-Con on the National Entrepreneurship Convention, an event that creates a space for over 200 entrepreneurs and like-minded businesspersons from across the country to dialog, learn, and share innovative ideas. The roadshow and all associated outreach activities will be driven by the following objectives supporting an enabling environment for MSME development, improving market access and facilitating supply chain linkages for MSMEs, promoting buying locally to improve economic recovery, facilitating access to finance for the MSME sector, and building the business and operational capacity of MSMEs."
As a business owner himself, the Prime Minister is aware of exactly how challenging it can be for entrepreneurs to get access to financing from commercial banks.
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"In 1986, there were two young men who had just come back from college, and they had this wonderful business opportunity. But guess what? They could not access capital. They can't borrow money, and they were told, 'Well, you don't have experience. We don't know if you know what you are doing. You don't have access to collateral. And so finally, these two young men went to their mother, and their mother's life work was a small little house that she built. And she loved her two sons so much, she said, 'Listen, I'm going to give you my house to go and mortgage.' And because of that mortgage, they managed to go to the credit union, not banks. They borrowed $20,000 to start their business, and the two brothers looked at one another and said, 'You know what? We can't let them sell mom's house. She worked all of her life to build this house, and so, within 18 months, those two brothers paid off that loan. Those two brothers are my brother, Jaime, and myself."
And that's one of the reasons why the current Prime Minister's administration is placing such a major focus on MSMEs. His colleague, the Minister of Tourism, says that MSMEs make up the majority of the tourism industry.
Hon. Anthony Mahler - Minister of Tourism & Diaspora Relations
"The tourism industry, which is the economic juggernaut of our nation, is one of the primary incubators for MSMEs. And so, there are so many opportunities for growth and development in tourism. I agree that I'm tired of going to gift shops. I'm tired of going into hotels and seeing Hecho en Mexico, in Guatemala, imported from China. When we have all the resources necessary to ensure that 'Made in Belize' can be found in the hotels, gift shops, restaurants, and all over the country. I will say this. Even though we are working tirelessly to provide support for MSMEs, there are still too many of these businesses that lack the fundamentals needed for growth and development. They lack access to affordable financing. Many lack technical expertise. They lack understanding of the skill, understanding of making data-driven decisions, and the importance of marketing and product development."
And that's why the Briceno Administration wants to provide owners of MSMEs with an entire suite of capacity-building opportunities and tools.
Narda Garcia - CEO, Office of the Prime Minister
"The roadshow will travel to each district and the tourism destinations, namely San Pedro, Caye Caulker, and Placencia, to make available much-needed support and resources to cementing the government's commitment to MSME growth and development. The roadshow will specifically include the following activities: an MSME Bootcamp that will deliver business development training to participating MSMEs, covering topics such as a business lab and design thinking, a business model, money management and budgeting, social media marketing and content creation, customer service, and business goal-setting. The boot camp will also introduce participants to the Virtual Knowledge Center, an online platform where MSMEs, investors, exporters, employment seekers, and others can learn, promote their businesses, and find matchmaking and access to finance opportunities. Another feature of the roadshow will be the MSME Town Hall meetings, which will feature the government's efforts to improve the policy landscape, support MSMEs, and improve the doing business landscape."
So, how do the Prime Minister and his team measure the success of this program?
Hon. John Briceno
"Our measurements will be simply by seeing how many more businesses we can create, how many more jovs are being created and how we can be reducing poverty. These are simple metrics that you can take to look at the success of the work that we are doing through the MSMEs strategy."
The government is also committing to granting one-fifth of its contracts for goods and procurement to MSMEs.
Hon. John Briceno
"On Tuesday, Cabinet also approved the adoption of the policy to have the government award 20% of all government procurement tenders to MSMEs by March 2025."
Sheena Gentle Smith - Owner, Nari Self Care
"For me, resilience, while we know it contributes greatly to the economy, resilience for a small business owner also means that we're not worrying about how we're going to be paying our next bills. It means that we have financial security. It means that we are able to reinvest into our company so that we can see where we can expand. It means that we have that mental well-being where we're not worried if we're closing, especially now where we see some of our colleagues posting that this is their final sale or they, unfortunately, because they're not able to meet certain demand, we have to close down, and that's scary for us. And so, I'm really happy to see that this initiative is being invested in and that we're looking at a holistic way that small businesses can benefit."
