CDB committed to public sector development

THE Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is dedicated to enhancing their Caribbean Technological Consultancy Services (CTCS) Network in an effort to develop the public sector in the borrowing member countries (BMCs).

This is according to Coordinator of the CTCS, Kenneth Harvey, who delivered the feature address at the Opening Ceremony of the National Training Workshop in Pattern Design and Garment Construction Techniques at the SJPP.

He said that they are therefore committed to strengthening the human resources in these countries, which would help to sustain micro, small and medium size enterprises (MSMEs) in the region.

“CDB is committed to further strengthening the CTCS Network with a view to contributing to a more vibrant and active private sector in its BMCs.  In support of this goal, it is critical that every effort is made to develop and harness the human resource capacity within each BMC, thereby ensuring effective development and sustainability of our MSMEs.”

He stated that this is why they have revamped their Network so that in addition to seeing these MSMEs in the BMCs progress, they can also respond to their needs in a more economically efficient way.

In this regard, they have embarked on a number of initiatives aimed at pursuing along this path, such as providing practitioners with management skills.

“The use of group training attachments in lieu of individual attachments to successful regional business entities and highly recognised Regional Training Institutions, intended to provide MSME practitioners and new entrepreneurs with hands-on exposure to improved production processes and management techniques. This approach will improve the cost effectiveness of training attachments while providing training opportunities to a larger number of MSMEs throughout the Bank’s BMCs.”

They are also working on developing a mechanism aimed at enhancing the work of the Network within the MSMEs.

“Developing and putting in place of a robust and effective Monitoring and Evaluation system to effectively assess the impact of CTCS work with MSMEs and to identify critical areas of need that may require additional and/or expanded technical approaches.”

Some of the other steps that they are pursuing include increasing the number of workshops catered to addressing the needs of MSMEs, such as climate change adaptation, energy conservation and business continuity planning; providing MSME trained practitioners with online follow up consultancies as the need arises, as well as online publications that would provide technical guidance in their business speciality, said Harvey.

It is expected that between 1 200 and 1 500 entrepreneurs/MSMEs in the BMCs would benefit from these initiatives on an annual basis. (PJT)