BPSA’s Tannis says time to think ‘profits plus people

The local private sector is promising to temper its desire for profits to embrace a socially conscious approach that takes into consideration the needs of everyone under its employ.

Newly-elected chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA) Trisha Tannis listed the ethical position among key priorities as businesses seek to lead the country on a process of economic recovery.

“The perception of a profit-first motive must be better managed and while sustainable profitability is indeed the first principle of any business endeavour, its pursuit cannot taint the profound responsibility of employers to ensure there is a share of those earnings allocated to the persons whose labour was given to achieve them, nor does it exempt the sector from achieving its goals in the most socially conscionable manner,” Tannis urged.

“Care must also be taken to nurture the small business sector as this is the indicator sector that provides the most useful barometer of future wealth creation, certainly at a grassroots level. This sector, in particular, has been decimated and deserves our immediate triage and remediation,” she added.

Tannis was addressing the BPSA handover ceremony where she officially took the reins of the organisation and underscored its relevance in tackling the relevant issues of the day.

Despite her position on social conscience, she maintained that the sector should not single-handedly shoulder the blame for the rising cost of living, that is placing the livelihoods of working-class Barbadians under strain.

In her first address to the association as chairman, Tannis complained that while many continue to focus solely on the price of goods on the shelves they often ignore “structural” factors that are driving up the cost of doing business and the ultimate impact on the cost of living.

“The issue of high prices in Barbados is a topic of ongoing interest. While it is a natural and understandable focus, we cannot understate the relationship between the cost of living and the cost of doing business in this country,” Tannis contended.

“It is counterproductive to focus simply on the output and avoid addressing the systemic inefficiencies and attendant costs that result in an unacceptable cost of living in Barbados. This is indeed the most difficult conversation to have.

“It is much easier to talk about pricing and far more difficult to talk about what is supporting that pricing and the structural reforms that are necessary as an entire nation if we are to significantly reduce the cost of doing business in Barbados,” the new BPSA chairman added.

As the community simultaneously seeks to improve investment from overseas, however, Tannis declared that the country’s global competitiveness urgently needed to improve.

“Ranking 77 out of 141 in 2019 as far as our global competitive index is concerned and with the ease and cost of business ranking 128 out of 190 countries last year is certainly not an environment for foreign direct investment,” she said.

Her predecessor Edward Clarke has also warned the commercial class to take ownership of the vexing problems.

“Do not be fooled by what you read in the press that the World Bank rating of the ease of doing business is the issue. That is not the issue. The issue is that we need to fix the problem that we have in this country. The bureaucracy, the delays, the pushing paper around. We have got to stop it. We have to make sure as a country that we can do things faster, better, smarter every time. That is how we need to do business in Barbados,” Clarke urged.

Also concerning to Tannis is the economy’s overly-dependent relationship with tourism and called for urgent diversification of the economy.

“In the near future it is critical that the Barbadian economy returns to a path of sustainable growth so that unemployment and underemployment can be deflated and that an environment prevails for business enterprises to grow and to thrive. Our dependence on a monocrop whether that crop is called tourism or sugar has existential risks that we are currently actualising,” said Tannis.

“The pending potential impact of the imposition of a global minimum tax rate is another looming threat to another golden sector and this is a sector that contributes well in excess of two-thirds of our corporate tax revenue for the country. We are likely to be in a very slow path to recovery in the traditional sectors and therefore, we must formulate a strategy to incubate new, innovative sectors so that when we eventually emerge there is something to show for the unprecedented dislocation and social disruption occasioned by the pandemic,” she added.
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)