Focus on MSMEs during Global Entrepreneurship Week

The Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) has planned a slew of activities for Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), which will be observed November 18 to 23.

The GEW is recognized as the world’s largest celebration of innovators and job creators, who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.

Themed: ‘Transforming Ideas into Real Business’, the Week is aimed at inspiring the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Jamaica, through local and national initiatives designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators, using the recently-launched MSME & Entrepreneurship Policy as a benchmark to success.

Highlighting the planned activities for the week at a JIS ‘Think Tank’, on November 12, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the JBDC, Harold Davis, said that, “we thought it would be apt for us to celebrate GEW on the heels of the launching of the Policy and perhaps provide the first platform for persons to understand what the policy is about and to glean some of the benefits that have already been accrued from it.”

He noted that the week of activities will spread across the island with participation from key agencies, such as  the Companies Office of Jamaica (COJ), Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO), and Tax Administration of Jamaica (TAJ) that provide services to MSMEs.

The week’s activities will include a series of business clinics across the island from Monday, November 18 to Thursday, November 21.

On Monday, clinics will be conducted in Kingston at the Mona Business Support Services on the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies and Mandeville, at the Morris Entrepreneurial Centre, at 1 Brumalia Road.

Business Clinics for Tuesday will take place in Ocho Rios at the St. Ann Chamber of Commerce office and at The Source in Savanna-la-mar, Westmoreland.

Other business clinics are scheduled for the Montego Bay Civic Centre and Lucea United Church in Hanover on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

Also on Wednesday, the JBDC will be hosting an Open House at its Incubator & Resource Centre at 76 Marcus Garvey Drive, in Kingston

Mr. Davis explained that the event is being held to showcase the services at the facility while offering technical and product development support to entrepreneurs in the various sectors.

“We will have a number of designers, engineers and industry specialists dealing with their product development cycle and process development, so persons can come with their product idea and product sample and we can give them the necessary advice,” the Deputy CEO pointed out.

The main event for the celebration of GEW is the Business Start-Up Expo, set for November 22 at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

This  Expo is a blend of workshops and exhibitions geared toward start-up entrepreneurs and MSMEs, and will focus on various issues, including demystifying the start-up process; getting business ideas funded; branding and intellectual property; appropriate use of technology and exploring emerging sectors in the creative industries, such as animation.

The week will culminate on November 23 with the Scotia Bank Capacity Building Seminar titled: ‘Winning tools to grow your business’, which will take place at the bank’s training centre on Acadia Boulevard in Kingston.

“It is a full week of critical information sharing, with the relevant entities and persons to provide  one-on-one advice,” Mr. Davis highlighted, adding that the primary objective of the week’s activities is to “give information in various forms…information as to how you do certain transactions, information that relates specifically to your business and what you need to do to better place your business in a position for success.”

All business clinics are free of cost with registration required for the Business Start-Up Expo and the Scotia Bank seminar. Online registration can be done at http://www.jbdc.net/forms.

For registration, sponsorship and exhibition, persons may call the JBDC at 928-5161-5 or email expo@jbdc.net.