The Adentan Municipal Assembly has entered into business collaboration with the Worcester City Council to develop a local economic development link to speed up development of the municipality. The outline of the Business Directory Programme will ensure small scale businesses in the Municipality are empowered to develop appropriate business channels to promote local manufacturing of goods and services. Councilor Dr. David Tibbut, the Head of a five-member team of Councilors from the Worcester City Council, said the “Good Practice” scheme was funded by the Department for International Department and managed by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, a UK based organisation. The team is on a one week interactive business visit to the Adentan Municipal Assembly. Dr. Tibbut said the main focus of the scheme was to improve the delivery of local authority services and to support the Municipal Assembly in local government development. This will benefit the people and is essential to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals through the spread of good business practices. The Councilor told some representatives of small scale businesses that it was important to collaborate and understand basic business practices. He said the strategic emphasis of the scheme included the expansion of employment opportunities for both men and women’s groups and to ensure that the benefits of growth are widely shared. The Phase One of the Project would see the establishment of bilateral local economic committees, sub-committees for women in business, basic data collection, business directorate, federation of small businesses and a “Buy Local Goods” campaign. Mad. Lilian Baeka, Planner at the Adentan Municipal Assembly and Coordinator of the Project, said the scheme was developed to assist women in businesses to develop their capacity through the formation of corporative groups and to eventually set up credit unions to be better placed to access credit. She said the scheme had registered over 40 businesses and is collating views from the members to assist them to promote durable businesses that would support the Municipal Assembly in its tax and revenue collection drives. Mad. Baeka said the scheme had reached its implementation stage and it is the aim of the organizers to encourage all businesses to be part of the new look that would ensure that there is an improvement in their operations. This would encourage people to buy goods produced in the Adentan Municipal area. Mad. Angela Smith, the Regional Organiser of the Federation of Small Businesses and a member of the Worcester delegation, appealed to women’s groups to avail themselves of business opportunities to break the chain of poverty in their communities. She advised members of business groups to collaborate and set up goals by developing a business directory that would guide them to derive maximum benefits from their expertise in local development and production. Source: GNA