JBDC Partners with CIAL Dun & Bradstreet to Assist MSMEs

The Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) is partnering with international organisation, CIAL Dun & Bradstreet, to deliver critical development services to operators in the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) sector as they grapple with the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

The agreement between the entities was signed on Wednesday (November 18) during a ceremony staged by the JBDC to mark Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020 under the theme ‘IDEATE. INNOVATE. ACTIVATE’.

With a strong presence across 43 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, CIAL Dun & Bradstreet empowers companies of all sizes to grow, manage their customers and suppliers, and operate successfully in an increasingly global, transparent and modern economy. 

The entity has enabled millions of businesses around the world to make confident decisions with reliable and accessible information.

JBDC Board Chairman, Dr. William Lawrence, said he anticipates that the partnership will help the country’s MSMEs to recover quickly and go forward.

“As you know, the country, like many others, has been hard hit and as the main driver of economic growth, the business sector has had to grapple with many challenges.

“A number of surveys suggest that… at the MSME sector, there is need for special help and this is where the JBDC has always stepped up to the plate,” he noted.

Dr. Lawrence said that the JBDC Board of Directors is pleased with the swift progress that the organisation has been making since the onset of COVID-19.

State Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Dr. the Hon. Norman Dunn, for his part, charged the JBDC to continue to engage industries in an effort to assist them to transform and identify new ideas.

He noted that Global Entrepreneurship Week is more than just networking and building awareness.

“It is also about unleashing our creativity, exploiting new opportunities, solving problems, taking risks, learning about our failures and successes and charting a new course for the future. It is about thinking big, making our mark in the Jamaican landscape and the world,” he pointed out.

He further noted the appropriateness of Global Entrepreneurship Week theme. “As an entrepreneur myself, I understand the importance of these terms – ideate, innovate and activate. It is what makes us entrepreneurs,” he said.

The JBDC is the Government’s business development agency that assists in the sustainable creation and development of MSMEs in Jamaica.