Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa started the debate in the National Assembly on Friday morning on the National Small Business Amendment Bill, which he said is aimed at reducing duplication of institutions underpinning small-business development.

The Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) -- a national agency -- will be established as a juristic person in terms of the Bill. It will incorporate Ntsika Enterprise Promotion Agency and the National Manufacturing Advisory Centre Trust (Namac).

Mpahlwa said the Department of Trade and Industry believes the establishment of a new entity -- which will be responsible for implementing the government's 2004-to-2014 small, medium and micro enterprise strategy -- will be "in the public interest and will significantly advance the critical objectives of small enterprise development".

"The primary aim of the establishment of the new entity is to increase the capacity of government to deliver support services to small enterprises," he said.

The Bill notes in its memorandum that the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the National Productivity Institute had established Namac to focus on small and medium enterprises in the manufacturing sector, with similar objectives to Ntsika, which aimed to coordinate the national programme of policy research and collection of information concerning small business.

Official opposition trade and industry spokesperson Enyinna Nkem-Abonta said although his party welcoms the broad thrust of the Bill, it has a disturbing "centralist" flavour.

He said: "For most of our municipalities, much of local economic development is about small-business development. If the Bill becomes law, a mayor of a municipality, insofar as his or her development programme relates to small-business development, will have to be answerable to a bureaucrat in Pretoria, not his or her electorate.  Mail & Guardian Online

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