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What will the new-look Business Link offer black firms in 2007?
In recent months there has been a flurry of road shows to `sell’ the new-look Business Link to the public, scheduled in the first quarter of next year. A recent report suggest that less than 8% of the 20,000 plus African and Caribbean BMEs in the UK have any real access to enterprise support, and yet they represent more than 11% of all economic activity in the country.
The road shows are intended to explain to ethnic minority business owners and their organizations across the country the importance and relevance of the `new developments in enterprise support’ nationally. Officials have admitted that the original remit of BLs was to support companies with 10 plus employees although micro companies from the ethnic minority community showed greater resilience to economic recession.
More than £2 billion per year is allocated for enterprise support for the benefit of businesses that are located in inner-city areas, and yet official figures show that less than 8% of all African and Caribbean businesses in the UK have ever received enterprise support. The report says that more than 50% of all business advisers had no real understanding and cultural knowledge of black-owned businesses. And more than 45% did not understand the sector dynamics of black owners.
But today, despite their size and composition, African and Caribbean BMEs make a sizeable contribution to the economic development of the UK. And these companies are truly the economic saviours of the black community in areas where social deprivation and exclusion can be seen each.
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