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Access to venture capital in Barbados has always been a source of concern for enterprising young businessmen. Reports are legion where the local commercial banking sector declined to finance potentially viable projects, but offered funding for the purchase of consumer goods and overseas trips to customers.

Having recognised this deficiency in the commercial banking sector and following the demise of the Barbados Development Bank, Arthur established the Enterprise Growth Fund Ltd to satisfy this need in the business sector. An enterprising young businesssman can now access funding from this government agency to start up a company. It can be said that Arthur has consciously sought to establish a business culture during his thirteen years as head of the government. In several cases businesses were known to have collapsed because of under-capitalisation.

One writer on the subject of venture capital funding has noted that " successful countries are those that have a venture capital mentality and community that can help identify winners and nurture them so that they can commercialise their innovations."

The author went on to say that "having a gambling culture helps, because when an innovator comes up with a new idea in his garage, he usually finds it difficult to develop that idea because of the risks involved."

In an analysis of Taiwan's venture capital industry the writer pointed out that it had spawned hundreds of profitable firms. According to the author, some of the most successful companies in the Silicon Valley were initially nurtured by venture capitalists.

Stressing the critical role that venture capital funding plays in the development of businesses in the USA, one researcher noted that the state of Massachusetts has a bigger venture capital industry than all of Europe combined. He said: " Venture capitalists are very important people in this day and age, and not just as a source of funds. The best of them provide expertise for start-up companies. They see a lot of them and they understand the stages through which companies have to go in order to develop, and they can help carry them through, which is often as important as seed money."

In setting up the Enterprise Growth Fund Ltd the Owen Arthur administration clearly showed that it was in tune with business trends worldwide. With a ceiling of $1.5 million in venture capital funds available, small businesses can now access start- up funds to launch they projects.

It is now part of conventional wisdom to acknowledge that small and medium-sized businesses are the engines of growth in most economies. The Taiwanese government has come to terms with this reality and has encouraged the establishment of small and medium-sized enterprises that often began with one family working out of its living room.

The author Thomas Friedman noted that arising out of this conscious policy has been "the emergence of a beehive of small and medium-sized enterprises. It is hoped that the mushrooming of small and and medium-sized businesses becomes a reality on the local economic landscape as a result of policies introduced by the Owen Arthur administration.
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