A Renewed and Transformed Barbados

A Renewed and Transformed Barbados

Eby the international community in the country’s new direction has led to the first credit upgrade of what I believe will be of many to come. It is the end of a ten-year slide and a return to the fiscal discipline and sound management on which investors both foreign and domestic once relied, and on which they can rely once again. These developments, together with the completion of our Domestic Debt Exchange, sounder revenue and lower spending measures have now put our debt and economic sustainability on an affordable footing, and allow us to start to focus on the transformation of our economy.

Marketing Inc. and the Barbados Tourism Product Authority to create a single public/private partnership as a focused, business-driven entity with a clear mandate for reinforcing and expanding the awareness of the Barbados brand in international markets.

ven as a small island nation, Barbados has never shrunk from the challenge of showing leadership in how as a country and a people, we reinvent and transform ourselves to meet global challenges and opportunities.

It is an honour to share my vision for the Barbados of the next fifty years and beyond, where the grit and ingenuity of our people will drive a new, knowledgebased economy, and create the best environment for people to visit, work, invest, and live their best lives.

Barbados is currently facing the most difficult period in its economic history. My Government has spent the last six months securing the value of our dollar, restoring our credit worthiness and returning the country to normal service in the functioning of institutions and the delivery of services. Our Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) Plan has been carefully designed to ensure that Barbados will emerge stronger and more resilient, more efficient and effective in our operations, and re-engineered for growth in new sectors, and for greater integration with regional and global markets.

The BERT Plan is the basis for an Extended Fund Facility programme with the International Monetary Fund, whose support has unlocked not just their own concessionary resources, but those of the Caribbean Development Bank, the InterAmerican Development Bank and others. These resources will push our reserves up to over $1billion. This show of confidence

The core of this transformation is the RE-RE programme the process of retooling, empowering, retraining and enfranchising Barbadians not just as workers but as active participants in a new, high-skilled economy. Our aim is to transform the public sector and modernise its operations, strengthen partnerships and new ways of doing business with the private sector, and ensure that the country has the necessary platform for growth and expansion in the coming years. Government will therefore spend approximately BDS$30M per annum over the next four years on the comprehensive retraining of Barbadians to make our nation globally fit for purpose. We have also begun the process of modernizing Town Planning and other legislation critical to driving investment, establishing a digital platform for licensing and other key government services, and addressing one by one every aspect of the doing business environment.

To be successful, we must continue not only to deliver globally competitive prices for our goods and services, but also to ensure their quality and diversity. We are developing a new, high-skilled, knowledgebased, technology-empowered and more diversified economy that encompasses renewable energy; creative and artistic industries; educational and health services; high-tech, agro-industries and research. Equally, we are renewing our commitment to the international business and tourism sectors as the mainstays of our economy. Tourism continues to be the leading contributor to GDP and we have introduced several initiatives to enhance and reposition this sector. We have started the consolidation of the Barbados Tourism

The global business and financial services industry is being reshaped. Barbados has a strong record of mutually beneficial partnerships with several nations. We value these relationships and will defend these strategic interests, even as we initiate new partnerships with emerging economies. My Government has had, in a short six months, to confront many fundamental changes in the economic and business landscape. Perhaps the most transformational of these has been the decision taken in 2017 to revise our suite of legislation to ensure compliance with the requirements of the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Action 5 Initiative. The government, with significant input from the Barbados International Business Association, has completed a comprehensive review of Barbados’ legislative framework, and has announced that all companies will become regular Barbadian companies.

Consequently, before December 31, 2018, we will abolish the International Business Companies Act and amend the Societies with Restricted Liability Act, and not issue any new IBC or ISRL licences, as well as make other legislative changes as required. Further, Barbados is now one of the first countries to converge its local and international tax rates, and rather than converging our tax rates up to the local level, and risk losing our international business sector and its tax revenues, we have converged down to the international level. Our rates now start at 5.5% for corporate entities that are not grandfathered, and go down to 1% for taxable income in excess of BDS$30 million. Insurance companies are treated separately and their rates start at 2% depending on what class they are. This allows us to embrace the challenge of global competitiveness. We take a stand as a country fearless in the face of embracing the world in the Barbadian tradition of excellence, as have the Right Excellent Sir Garfield Sobers, Rihanna, George Lamming, Kamau Brathwaite, and many others.

We are developing a new, highskilled, knowledge-based, technology-empowered and more diversified economy that encompasses renewable energy; creative and artistic industries; educational and health services; high-tech, agro-industries and research.

Barbados remains an attractive place to live and work with an excellent quality of life. It is historically an environment sought after for wellness, regeneration for those who wish to reconnect to their purpose in the world, and to thrive.

The attraction of foreign direct investment and global business continues to offer significant potential, in particular, the traditional sub-sectors such as niche manufacturing, insurance, wealth management, as well as in information and communication technology (ICT), to name a few. The number of licensed captive insurance companies has been rising steadily in recent years, while some ICT entities have embarked on expansion programmes, which have led not only to increased jobs locally but enhanced technological know-how and skills transfer. These will continue to be growth areas.

Still, there are several untapped business opportunities that have the potential to take Barbados to another altitude nationally and internationally. FinTech is one such niche that is rapidly developing and which can help to redefine and position Barbados as a centre of excellence. Bitt, the first Fintech start-up in the Caribbean, was founded by two enterprising and talented young Barbadians, who represent the quality of talent that can be found in the country. Based on a partnership among Bitt, the Central Bank of Barbados and the Financial Services Commission, Barbados has launched one of the first regulatory sandboxes, to test a new digital payments system. When the sandbox is over in about eight weeks, we expect to have a new licensing regime for digital payments. Further, following positive discussions with regulators in our region, we are likely to become the first to launch a multijurisdictional sandbox, so that a product approved in Barbados could be sold elsewhere in the region. Government will also lead by example in harnessing blockchain technology to ensure better delivery of certain services within the public sector, while positioning Barbados as a forerunner in this technology so that “Smart Bridgetown” becomes the tech city of the Americas.

Similarly, we are excited about the future of work and the emerging opportunities we can explore by fostering research and development in the areas of artificial intelligence, renewable energy technologies, high-value agro-industries, and medical and educational solutions.

We will harness the creativity of our people and support their ability not only to dream, but to make those dreams a reality.