Large businesses urged to partner with and elevate MSMEs
Published:Friday | April 26, 2024 | 12:09 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
DR AMA Eyo, senior lecturer in Law at Bangor University in the United Kingdom, has urged large local companies to collaborate with micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to grow and benefit from government procurement agreement contracts.
That suggestion came Thursday, the final day of the three-day Elevate Procurement Conference attended by some 500 delegates from Latin America and the Caribbean at the Montego Bay Convention Centre. The conference was held under the theme ‘Elevate: Innovate, Create’.
Eyo, who is also the dean of Students’ Experience at Wales-based Bangor University, shared that MSME’s can grow and benefit from the annual pool of US$1.7 trillion under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) if large businesses are partnering with them, not necessarily in terms of reservation of contracts, but in other domestic processes.
“If we start supporting the smaller businesses from today, that will give them the preparation ground to grow,” Eyo said.
“One of the beautiful aspects is that you could do this when you have a big international company coming in to compete for a contract here in Jamaica.
“Perhaps you have a collocation arrangement whereby you have done the supply development analysis and then you can place smaller businesses in Jamaica up with those large businesses so they gain some expertise from that collaboration then grow along with it and then that will possibly prepare them for the future,” Eyo suggested during his presentation on ‘Safeguarding Sustainable Public Procurement for Corruption: The Impact of Corruption on Sustainable Public Procurement’.
His suggestion is like a call made by Senator Aubyn Hill, minister of industry, investment and commerce, who, in February this year, implored large Jamaican companies to do all they could to elevate, embrace, and support MSMEs while pointing out that they were key contributors to the economy and required adequate protection.
Hill, at the time, noted that the 422,000 MSMEs across the island are the cornerstone of the country’s workforce, employing between 60 to 70 per cent of workers and accounting for 90 per cent of private-sector employment.
“Thanks to the role of the MSMEs, the Jamaican economy is undeniable. This is why I am making this strong and special appeal to big Jamaican companies to support before looking abroad, a strategy which will certainly strengthen our economy,” he said.
“I am challenging the large companies to ensure that you look at ways to include small companies in the stuff that you buy and the services that you buy. Don’t look overseas first. Look at our micro, small, and medium-sized companies because when you build them, they employ people that buy the stuff that you sell. It’s a symbiotic relationship that makes sense to both sides,” Hill noted while speaking at the recent 20th Biennial Trade Expo 2024.