The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The deputy prime minister has pledged that the Small Business Development Bill (SBDB) will be brought to Parliament before the current fiscal year on June 30, 2021.

K Peter Turnquest said the Bill, which has been awaited for some 13-14 years, and been a project that has lasted across four administrations, is something the Government is going to give “focus to over the next several months”. Her added that “certainly before the new fiscal year” the Government will have a Bill that can be brought forward to Parliament.

Merrit Storr, a Small Business Development Centre (SBDC) board member, said the agency will lead a formal consultation with all micro, small and medium-sized (MSME) enterprises on what should be included in the proposed legislation.

"The government has a number of its agencies that service this sector, and so an initial consultation involving the Bahamas Development Bank, the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation, the Bahamas Entrepreneurial Venture Capital Fund and a number of smaller agencies is of critical importance," Mr Storr added.

"Streamlining the Government’s resources, and ensuring they are effectively utilised, is also an important goal of this consultation process. The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation, and the various island chambers of commerce, will also be consulted along with other private sector stakeholders.

“Approximately seven years ago I had the privilege of leading a similar consultation process, which ended with a drafting of a Bill to govern an agency like the Access Accelerator (SBDC), but unfortunately that process stalled for various reasons,” he said.

“As a result of the early success of the Access Accelerator, we believe there is a renewed commitment to completing this process and ending up with a working draft Bill that can be presented to government for approval and, ultimately, for tabling in Parliament as soon as it is reasonably possible.”

Recalling the previous effort he led seven years ago, Mr Storr added: “It was envisioned at that time that the legislation was going to be a Small Business Development Act, and there was going to be an agency created similar to what the Access Accelerator has become, but it was a little different.

"So what we have now has been completely revised and reformulated, and I think that it’s only fair that we probably have to go through that process again. The information or the circumstances that existed seven years ago have certainly changed."

Mr Storr said the proposed legislation will have objectives that are “two-fold”. He said: “One of the objectives is to create a more precise framework for the governing of the Access Accelerator, and to create a legislative format for that.

"There are a number of government agencies that are providing support for MSMEs, and in some instances there may be a question as to whether some of those services are overlapping. So part of this process is to also try and create a more efficient process so that all of these agencies work in tandem and there is a legal infrastructure that governs that.”