Remarks by UN Resident Coordinator, Yeşim Oruç at the National Small Business Week Seminar

Kester Hutson, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry,

John Edghill, Director of Business and Entrepreneur Development, Ministry of Tourism Industry and Commerce,

Members of the Georgetown Chambers of Commerce and Industry,

Members of the Private Sector, Diplomatic Corps, Partners, UN Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Thank you for this opportunity to participate in today’s event which culminates the activities for GCCI’s Small Business Week.

We know well that Micro, Small, Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) and their employees are the backbone of the global economy. Globally, they account for 90% of businesses, 60-70% of employment and 50% of GDP. In Guyana, MSMEs account for approximately 70% of the private sector.

Globally and in Guyana, MSMEs are also uniquely vulnerable to the global fluctuations, in supply chains, in labor force dynamics, in access to finance. The pandemic, the war in Ukraine, inflation, supply chain disruptions and the tectonic shifts in the labor market all impact your ability to sustain and grow your businesses.

My job, ladies and gentlemen in Guyana, is to promote and support policies and actions for realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs.

Today, my task is to speak to the topic of: Micro, Small, Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME) Resilience. Allow me therefore to offer a construct of MSME Resilience around the Sustainable Development Goals.

1. Inclusive and decent work (SDG8), where employees and staff, especially women can perform to the best of their abilities: During Covid we learned that companies which have good practices for the workplace, where women contribute equally and without fear or expectation of abuse (SDG5) and where staff, employees and employers respect each other’s rights, perform better. They are more resilient. I therefore encourage all businesses in Guyana but especially those growing businesses here, those that aspire to play in, or to take advantage of Guyana’s immense potentials to engage with ILO’s Decent Work program. I congratulate those Guyanese companies that have already joined UNWOMEN’s Women Empowerment Principles and encourage you all to adopt practices for children including children of your employees as championed by UNICEF for the corporate sector.
2. Companies that embraced innovations also came out on the other side of the pandemic more resilient. We heard today of all the opportunities in marketing and in successful financial management and how digital innovations contribute to greater reach and stronger success in getting loans and grants and for participating in the many national programs, including in national tenders in partnerships with bigger companies that are entering such tenders. That is why I am delighted that the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce is partnering with UNDP for Digital in Motion to support MSMEs to go more digital.
3. We do not need crises to teach us that networked, partnership-based business practices are far more resilient to shocks and are much better positioned to take advantage of opportunities – opportunities of the type that Guyana’s dizzying economic growth provides. That is why the UN’s WFP and others rally behind the Women’s Innovation and Investment Network shared today by Sanjay Pooran. In Guyana’s productive sectors, notably agriculture, Minister Mustapha recently presented at the FAO Headquarters in Rome the many programs, including those supported by FAO on how producers and manufacturers work together for stronger and predictable supply chains and ultimately for food systems transformations (SDG2). MSMEs, as GTT’s Mr. Orson Ferguson underlined are not only clients of some of the bigger companies, but they are also partners for growth. And of course, the power of partnerships among MSMEs is represented here by the host and organizer of today’s event, the GCCI under Kester Hutson’s leadership. If you’re not a member become one and join this community!
4. Finally, of course resilience of MSMEs depends in no small part on an enabling policy framework. We heard this week of many programs supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce. We know also that the Ministry of Finance is mobilizing around increased opportunities for Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean for a more equitable global finance both from private investors and from the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) (SDG 17). These Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) have robust private sector lending operations, for example our very own World Bank’s private sector arm IFC and the IDB’s private sector lending arm IDB-Invest. But as was repeatedly underlined in all the panels today, in order for the MSMEs to enter this playing field, they must partner with others and in order to do that, they must formalize and register their operations.  

Today, GCCI and the UN system, comprising all your UN partners in Guyana join hands in partnership to promote such resilience by inking our Declaration of Intent.

Our agreement brings the standards and principles espoused by the global community closer to you, the membership of GCCI.  Next month, Guyana will participate in the SDG Summit in NY where I anticipate His Excellency Dr. Irfaan Ali, the Head of State, to reiterate commitments to the SDGs and to the many principles I talked about today. In October, here in Guyana, we hope to convene many of you and others under our SDG Partnership Forum for Private Sector. 

In closing, I thank GCCI once again in the person of Kester Hutson for the opportunity given to me to associate the United Nations with the dynamic MSME community here today, my UN colleagues here today, notably the FAO Representative Dr. Gillian Smith and the UNDP Officer in Charge, Mr. Rene Chan for embracing Guyana’s MSME sector in their programs and activities. I thank GCCI’s Evie Gurcharan and my own colleague Nadira Balram for all their work to see this partnership come to fruition today.

Thank you.