Business View Caribbean | October 2019

70 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN OCTOBER 2019 for loans, such as cash collateral or a certificate of title. So, our Ministry provides for these persons, so they can start up or expand a business to create employment for themselves and others, while they provide goods and services to the island; or to even help them accelerate to become export-ready and to produce export-ready products through our new business acceleration program. “My Ministry also collaborates very closely with the Dominica Youth Business Trust (DYBT), under the Youth Division, where they provide training, mentorship, and a guarantee loan to young people who are starting their own businesses. Every year, government ensures that there is provision of at least $1 million to guarantee these young people funds. They have up to $20,000 they can access, but if they need added funds, we at the Ministry can sometimes provide these funds for their expansion or for implementing their business ideas. “In addition to that, the government of Dominica has a number of soft loans and credit facilities that we have provided to the Agricultural, Industrial & Development (AID) Bank for lending to private sector business companies in various sector areas. There is one facility targeting agribusiness; one for real estate related to tourism – hotels and such; one for cultural industries; and one for manufacturing and agroprocessing. We liaise with the AID Bank to ensure people have access to credit facilities. The loan is at 2 percent interest and, depending on the loan, you have as much as a one-year grace period to repay. So, we are allowing people to take the necessary risk that they would not ordinarily be able to take to invest in businesses and create employment for themselves. “We also work closely with umbrella organizations, such as the Dominica Business Forum, the DAIC (Dominica Association of Industry and Commerce), Dominica Manufacturing Association, and all those that represent our clientele, for the development of private sector and enterprise and commerce in Dominica. We recognize the importance of partnerships – our Ministry is not big in terms of human resources, when we pool our resources together we can get much more done.” pictured Roseau, Dominica