Valerie Viera, chief executive officer of the Jamaica Business Development Corporation. - file

CLARIFICATION

In reference to this story, the Jamaica Business Development Corporation says only a quarter of the space at Marcus Garvey Drive still needs outfitting, and not the full 20,000 square foot property as reported. In addition a comment on budget numbers ascribed to Valerie Viera was inaccurate. The figures are from the 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure. We apologise for the errors.

Budget cuts executed by the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce have left the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) with some 20,000 square feet of underutilised office space that was meant to be transformed into an incubator for start-ups.

JBDC is without needed capital to acquire the necessary equipment to outfit the space at its Marcus Garvey Drive location.

Valerie Viera, JBDC chief executive officer, says the equipment would have served the five productive clusters operated by the small-business support unit.

JBDC, a state-sponsored business advisory and funding agency, this year was granted a budget of $373 million, of which $192 million was for the running of the agency.

The recurrent spend is about $15 million or seven per cent less than the last fiscal year, but the budget numbers indicate that JBDC's capital allocation has climbed from $27 million to $181 million this period.

Viera said close to $127 million was earmarked for two JBDC projects.

Estimates of Expenditure

But the Estimates of Expenditure also has a $53.6-million allocation for the incubator project, which has been ongoing since 2007 and is scheduled to be completed by 2012.

Still, Viera said the inability to follow through on the JBDC incubator was budget related.

"Despite what you see there, we are still negotiating. The economy is under constraints and when the ministry gets a cut in its allocation, it has to cut right throughout," Viera told Wednesday Business.

"We are still negotiating to see what we will receive."

The JBDC earns money from training and other support services, as well as rental of meeting and training space. General services offered by the entity include advice on business operations, review of business plans and strategies, advice on preparation of loan requests, financial analysis and budget development.

In 2008, over 8,900 individuals/ entities were assisted by JBDC in the form of general business advice, training, product development, marketing and consultations.

The number of new clients for the year was 861.

Established in April 2001, the JBDC is mandated to lead Government's facilitation of sustainable development of the micro-, small- and medium-size enterprises (MSME) sector.

In 2008, its scope was expanded with the establishment of the Incubator and Resource Centre and the Financial Services Unit.

The Incubator and Resource Centre on Marcus Garvey Drive was launched on April 12, 2008, providing hand-holding and 'incubation' services for start-up and existing small businesses.

While plans for a physical incubator now lags, Viera notes that the JBDC has still fulfilled its mandate as a support and resource centre.

"A lot of activity will happen from the resource side. Incubation is not only the physical people in the centre but all the services provided in the network. Our philosophy is that you sometimes need to incubate people in their own space," she said.

"Even our 20,000 square feet of space would not be able to hold everyone."

Centre utilised

In the last month, some 2,000 people utilised the centre for different services, some of whom needed help in product development and growing their already established businesses.

"Not everyone is in start-up mode. Some need product development operating from their own space," said Viera. "We still provide development services."

As the demand for its services grows, JBDC has turned to external agencies for funding assistance to acquire additional equipment.

A label machine was acquired through the EU/GOJ Private Sector Development Programme, and one for food products with the help of the IDB but it needs more.

Banana is among the areas showing promise.

"We are getting such a good response, we are looking at expanding the activity at Marcus Garvey Drive. We are negotiating with Factories Corporation to see how we can expand and include other fibre sources such as pineapple as well," said Viera.

But JBDC also needs equipment for its fashion and entertainment clusters.

"We are already working with practitioners but we need a fully equipped music resource centre so we can assist young musicians with basics," said the JBDC boss.

"Those who are singers need facilities for demo or CD production."

avia.collinder@gleanerjm.com