Business View Caribbean | September 2019

57 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN SEPTEMBER 2019 MINI STRY OF COMMERCE , ENTERPR I SE AND SMALL BUS INESS DEVELOPMENT - DOMINI CA BVC: Looking ahead, what are your Ministry’s goals for the next year? Minister Paul: “We want to strengthen the capacity of various enterprises, particularly in management. A lot of the micro businesses sometimes need hand-holding, in terms of marketing, record keeping, business management, and leadership. These are a few areas we are focusing on. Also, in the event of another hurricane, we do not want to hinder people’s ability to bounce back quickly, and if we are building resilience, it is important that there is business continuity. So we have been training people in that regard, and ensuring that the MSMEs can have business insurance in place, maybe group insurance, so they have a better fall-back position and resistance in the event of disaster; also, encouraging enterprises to work together. “One of the challenges has been the inadequacy of our ports after Hurricane Maria. Very soon, we will be doing groundbreaking for a new expanded pictured Small Business training with the Ministry of Commerce