Small business owners of East and West Berbice will now benefit from improved access to business production resources with the official commissioning of the Belvedere Business Incubator Centre.
While the centre was constructed and commissioned in February 2020, the building was not staffed or equipped with the necessary resources until now.
The investment totals over $100 million with several small businesses already identified to utilise the centre’s facilities.
“The various pods have been outfitted with high-quality agro-processing machinery constituting production lines for coconut oil, teas, indigenous flours and packaged fruit products,” Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond said while delivering the feature address at the Belvedere Industrial Site in Region Six on Tuesday.
The centre also contains a dehydrator and mill, which the minister said can be used for the production of dried seasonings.
Additionally, coconut de-shelling and grinding machines, teabag packaging equipment, filling machines and a root tuber peeler, for the washing and peeling of ground provisions are also installed at the facility.
The Small Business Bureau, an agency which falls under the purview the ministry, will continue to examine ways of expanding the operations in the county, Minister Walrond stated.
Soon, a warehouse facility, as well as additional staff will be added to the facility to aid in the realisation of the government’s vision for the region.
“So today…we bring to businesses in Region Six, access to a top-class agro-processing facility that allows you to boost your production capacity. For in our earlier interactions with agro-processors in this region, we learned that many of you were operating below capacity due to lack of adequate production facilities. Access to this incubator is part of our solution and we are told that it will, in some cases, result in a more than 100% increase in production,” Minister Walrond said.
The investment in the facility is intended to serve as a catalyst for business development in the region leading to the expansion of production and the creation of employment opportunities. (Extracted and modified from DPI)
