MSME Roadshow Brings Business Support to Belize City

The National MSME Roadshow is now in Belize City, giving entrepreneurs three days to access business support, training and services to help them formalize and grow their businesses. The Belize City leg got underway today at the Belize City Civic Center where entrepreneurs are learning about the resources and services available to them. Tomorrow, the focus will be on formalization clinics. Business owners will be able to get assistance with properly formalizing their businesses. Then on Saturday, the roadshow will wrap up its Belize City stop with a Buy Belizean Expo, held as part of the Belize City Downtown Supersale. The expo will give local businesses a chance to showcase and sell their products and services. The National MSME Roadshow has been travelling across the country since June, making stops in San Ignacio, Benque Viejo, Orange Walk, Corozal, Punta Gorda and Dangriga. Love News spoke with Executive Director Ishmael Quiroz about how the roadshow has been going so far, and about the opening day here in Belize City.

Ismael Quiroz, Executive Director, Beltraide: “This is an excellent opportunity to connect with the business support agencies and organizations from government, from private sector who can help you take your business to the next level. So there is room for people to join in. We are happy with the turnout right now, but we want more and more people to benefit. We do see a lot more uptake this time around. That has taken a lot of marketing, a lot of marketing effort, and being on the ground to raise awareness of the activity and the support services. So in terms of numbers, we have seen more participation this time around and we’re expecting to grow those numbers even more. Positive feedback, the topics are relevant. We have new content and of course the support from the partner agencies especially for the formalization clinic has been tremendous. We average about 20, between 28 and 30 partner agencies on the formalization clinic and so that alone is a testament to how committed not only the public sector but the private sector is to enabling MSMEs to grow in Belize. Belize is in many ways leading the way on MSME growth and as a matter of fact, you know, this road show has been replicated in other countries but Belize started it and so we’re very happy to be here continuing that support and to be delivering services and development for Belize.”

The roadshow will next head to Caye Caulker from August 20 to 22