Operators Of Local Economic Initiatives Get Business Support

More than a dozen operators of local economic initiatives (LEIs) from communities in St. James benefited from business and capacity-development support during an economic empowerment forum staged by the Social Development Commission (SDC).

The event was held at the SDC’s St. James Office at Albion in Montego Bay, on Thursday, October 13.

The forum, which formed part of the entity’s Local Economic Development Support Programme (LEDSP), involved partnership with the Rotary Club of Montego Bay and included presentations on social media marketing, wealth creation, book-keeping and more.

SDC Local Economic Development Coordinator for St. James and Trelawny, Dainty Taylor, told JIS News that the aim of the event was to equip the enterprises to grow and employ more community persons.

“In St. James, on our database, we have 46 LEIs, and they are from different industries such as food and agro-processing, soft furnishing, apiculture, manufacturing and so on,” she noted.

The SDC has been providing ongoing support to these and other community enterprises under the LEDSP.

“These LEIs, their products are authentic Jamaican products, and many of them we would have taken them from having no names to some of them having their products on shelves in different supermarkets,” Ms. Taylor said.

“So, our ultimate goal is to allow them to improve themselves so that they have the knowledge, so that they can build their products and so that their products can be comparative to the larger [entities],” she added.

For his part, Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister (West), Hon. Homer Davis, said that the SDC and the Rotary Club are doing a lot of work to empower LEIs to boost business marketing and productivity.

He noted the role of these small enterprises in building communities and contributing to the development of the Jamaican economy.

“This is what the Government wants to see our people do. We need to get up and participate in the commercial and retail activities that are happening around us. It is not designated for any single body; it is for all of us, the three million [Jamaicans] who are here,” Mr. Davis said.

Secretary of the Tangle River CDC, Joan Anderson, said the forum was informative and will greatly assist with the entity’s pastry business, which has been in operation since 2018.

“The takeaway was the social media; how to go on social media, the different types of platforms that you have and how you can sign up and use it wisely,” she noted.