Chairman and Chief executive officer of National Baking Company, Gary “Butch” Hendrickson, is calling for a more effective development banking system to facilitate micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), to spearhead a major change in the manufacturing paradigm of Jamaica’s society.

Hendrickson indicated that despite his role as chairman at the National Export-Import Bank of Jamaica (EXIM Bank), development banks do not have the capital base to lend more to MSMEs.

“It’s so important for the country to have a strong manufacturing base; I think we can do our manufacturing on a small level, do it well and be efficient,” Hendrickson stated.

“If you want to create a proper social structure in the country, not this lopsided structure that we have, where the greatest disparity exists between top and bottom; we must have successful business people”.

Hendrickson was speaking at this week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters in Kingston.

He added that while MSMEs, what he believes are the future of the country, create jobs, they must be efficient because they not only compete within Jamaica’s market, but with the world.

With a dream for Jamaica to become a great producing nation, Hendrickson indicated that MSME’s must be developed sooner rather than later for the country to experience real growth and sustainability.

“The other thing about development banking is that we have to realise as a nation, is that it is the riskiest form of financing; you’re financing young people, young companies, without the experience and you will lose some of them, it has happened and will continue to happen,” he said.

“Oddly enough in Jamaica, the EXIM Bank has a lower rate of default than the commercial banks; it should be the other way around,” he continued.

Default risk refers to the chance that companies or individuals will be unable to make the required payments on their debt obligations.