Officials say Saint Lucia’s exceptional entrepreneurial culture is expected to enhance the success of the program.

The Ministry of Commerce, Business Development, Investment and Consumer Affairs will be launching the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) program in Saint Lucia next month.

The SBDC model has been implemented in the US for almost 30 years to help stimulate the economy.

The Ministry of Commerce, through the Small Business Development Unit (SEDU), is seeking to expand Saint Lucia’s entrepreneurial potential through this initiative.

Foreign Affairs Officer with the US Mission to the OAS, Carla McManus said the program has been very successful in helping small entrepreneurs develop business potential.

“We thought that it would create a perfect synergy throughout the region to also incorporate the Caribbean in this initiative,” McManus said. “While it is a US based model, all the action takes place locally. So we thought that would have huge potential to adapt it in any size.”

According to Mc Manus, the program has also been successfully introduced to Dominica, Jamaica, Barbados and Belize.

Mc Manus added that Saint Lucia’s exceptional entrepreneurial culture is expected to enhance the success of the program.

“Entrepreneurialism is very much embedded in the Saint Lucian DNA,” she said. “We hope that in Saint Lucia specifically, it would bring that out a little more and enable or  facilitate the Ministry and SEDU to help people achieve their goals more effectively, more efficiently and to also be able to measure those results.”

The launching of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) program is scheduled for Nov. 12.