Premier Alex Scott yesterday defended his administration from charges that it was not moving fast enough on social issues.

Already, he said, steps had been taken to ensure that banks gave lines of credit to small businesses, and the launch of his administration's social agenda would move the country further along on such issues.

Former Tourism Minister, now backbencher, Renee Webb said that Government had somewhat "lost its way" on social issues and should have taken greater steps towards achieving black economic empowerment.

"If I had been the PLP Premier from 1998, she might have a case," the Premier said.

"I just came in a year ago. And in Jan or Feb this year, we committed the Cabinet first and the PLP Government now to the next two, three years addressing the social agenda, putting a priority on that very issue. And more than that issue, the narrow issue of the entrepreneurial opportunities for young black men, or young black entrepreneurs or people who look like Minister Webb."

He said he was as interested in advancing economic opportunities for blacks "even as I'm interested in advancing the interests of all Bermudians."

"Ironically if it's done fairly, blacks get the best possible shot they have ever had."

And the Premier questioned the former Tourism Minister's claims to have the best interests of Bermudians because she had insisted on a non Bermudian for the post of Tourism Director.

"I stood firm that it had to be a Bermudian and the results would show that, yes, I did win out and she had to acquiesce there... I was very clear - if there was a qualified Bermudian, then it would have to be a Bermudian. And it turned out to be a Bermudian."

Asked what Government's policy on economic empowerment was in a practical sense, Mr. Scott said "We don't sloganise it by saying 'people who look like me'. We legitimise it by saying 'listen for young Bermudians, black Bermudians in particular, there has not been access to a line of credit'. And so we've actually in practical terms gone to the banking community" to ask for the facility to be extended to young entrepreneurs.

"If you do it fairly, blacks benefit the most because, arguably, whether it's correct or not, the white community has probably had access for various reasons that we all know - and then some that we've misunderstood or misrepresented - had access to lines of credit for at least throughout my lifetime. Now we're saying we are opening up the economy so that black and small businesses can tender for Government work and we would like to see that enlarged for just work in general and get a line of credit from the banking facilities that exist."

Asked whether it was working, he said : "Gee, I just got here. It didn't work for Proactive and that's the main challenge to that Berkeley site and we've made that point over and over again. They had a limited line of credit."

He said it would be "dangerous" to try to "force-feed" the issue and say "every black entrepreneur who comes along should be given the contract." But "every black and small business which comes along and has a good business plan, can work that plan and the only thing that plan lacks is a line of credit - and he has either a way in which he can satisfy the criteria that the bank would want, in actual fact this is where the Government can step in through the small business Development Corporation and other folks - we can actually work with small businesses to better equip in competing, tendering competitively. That's how we come up with an empowerment program."

Asked how success will be measured, he said that the yet to be launched social agenda will address that.

"The social agenda will be us embarking on such an endeavour. We haven't really launched that social agenda yet. But we certainly were making sure, when I was Minister of Works and Engineering far more small businesses did get a fairer opportunity. We changed the bidding system at Works and Engineering."

The bidding system used to be solely controlled by technical officers, he said, but now there was aboard which sat with the technical officers to ensure the process was handled fairly.

"We'll probably enlarge on that. The social agenda will see us looking at ways in which we can improve the fairness of the tendering process both within Government and it may become a pilot programme of how it can be done in the private sector."

And asked how Government will demonstrate that his entreaties to the private sector are being heeded, he said that the first step was to establish a good working relationship with the business and banking community.

"All of that has been achieved in 11 months plus... We have many ways of measuring our support from the business community and I think I can safely say we have their confidence. That's why we can now turn to the social agenda."

He continued : "We even came up with the slogan 'Bermuda for everybody and everybody for Bermuda'. Meaning those who have in Bermuda are now going to be required to look in many different ways to see the haves sharing with the have nots. The haves can continue to have, but the have nots must have more if businesses are going to flourish in Bermuda."

He said it would be expected that the tendering process be open and fair and to give opportunities.

"We've seen how the Opposition have campaigned against the interest of the middle sized firms building that new secondary school. Could they have done a better job ? I think so. Could they have had more help at the beginning ? Of course they could. So it's going to require a Government commitment to our young people not to criticise them, not to destroy them, not to vilify their efforts but in actual fact to give them a helping hand. If someone says that the new senior secondary school project wasn't as successful as it might have been then I say we work hard to ensure the next contract offered is going to be successful. We learn from this experience and we'll revisit that again. That's the only way that we will invite more entrepreneurs to the economy - by staying there at the wicket and providing assistance."The Premier said that the Small Business Development Corporation will be "in the loop" when the banks extend lines of credit to successful tenders for Government business and it will be possible to measure and report back on the process.

Asked whether SBDC would be mandated to issue an annual report on the performance of the banks on increasing their credit facilities to small businesses, he said, the role of the SBDC was to ensure that the businesses had the right tools and if more effective legislation was needed "we'll do it."

"If we see that businesses aren't having the success rate we would like to see, we would be in such a position to say this is what it needs."

But he said it was wrong to say that there were no successful young and/or black businesses. "There are some that are under- performing. This is about making sure that they have access, fair access to the marketplace."

The businesses themselves, and critics like former Minister Renee Webb will let the Government know the success or failure of the effort and where it needs tweaking.

"The social agenda will be something that is a first for a Bermuda Government... And then the test will be at the polls."