Government lawmaker says corporate registry not fit for business

government MP has launched a scathing critique of the corporate registry, describing it as “a mess” that is “not fit for business” as Parliament debated new legislation to overhaul the agency for business registration and intellectual property and rename it Business Barbados.

St James North MP Edmund Hinkson blasted the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office (CAIPO) and lamented a failure to meet the needs of businesses. Speaking on the Business Barbados Bill, the former Cabinet minister was blunt in expressing his frustration with the department.

Explaining that he was “not bound by Cabinet” and could therefore speak candidly, Hinkson said: “The fact of the matter is that CAIPO is in a mess. That is the truth. CAIPO is not what it ought to be and this is not the fault of any one administration.

“This has been so for years and it lies within this administration right now to try and do its best to fix the problem. Barbados is not an easy place to do business in, whether within the private sector or the public sector.”

Hinkson noted that reforms introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic had improved the efficiency of company incorporations, but the process remained inadequate.

“In other countries, and in . . . CARICOM, you were having overnight incorporation of companies. So, during COVID that is what resulted in Barbados. Reforms have started under CAIPO but it still . . . remains not fit for business.”

He warned that inefficiencies and bureaucracy deter investment, saying: “If people are frustrated by processes, they will go elsewhere. They will say, ‘Look, I ain’t bothering with this here anymore’.”

Welcoming the Business Barbados Bill, Hinkson described it as a critical step toward making Barbados a more business-friendly jurisdiction.

“The goal of this bill is to try and bring some kind of efficiency in dealing with corporate affairs in this country and intellectual property. That is the truth. It is to elevate the quality of service, customer service to the people of Barbados and by extension to non-Barbadians who want to invest in this little rock,” he said. “There’s a backlog of documents in our registry and any attorney-at-law or their clerk who deals with [CAIPO] on a daily basis will tell you that they are really frustrated.”

Hinkson underscored the need for government departments to modernise their operations and emphasised that the economy depends on creating a conducive environment for investment.

“The more bureaucracy, difficulty, and challenges you have in doing business, you’re not going to get money. That’s the reality of the situation,” he said. “People are going to have to pay more taxes than they want to pay. But yet we still want free education, free healthcare . . . all the roads repaired . . . clean water flowing. But how is that going to happen if government departments, and private sector too, . . . make it so difficult to do ordinary pieces of business?”

Hinkson also called attention to the persistence of colonial-era rules that stymie progress, citing his experience as minister for immigration, where outdated requirements delayed citizenship and permanent residency applications.

He recalled: “When I was minister of immigration, [the department] had a whole set of things that were not legislated. So, to get citizenship or permanent status, you had to get a letter from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) . . . that said you didn’t owe the QEH any money. You never went to QEH in your life yet, but still you had to wait a whole year to get a letter from QEH to say that you don’t owe QEH any money. And all that time you can’t get your citizenship, you can’t get your permanent status, you can’t get your immigration [documents].”

He added: “We still have in this country a lot of regulations and stipulations . . . that hold up business that come from the colonial era. But we still got them 58 years after Independence, not to mention three years after being a whole Republic – the first and only Republic for this century in the whole world. We still got these colonial, archaic rules and bound by a whole set of civil service rules that predate Barbados’ Independence, that are holding up the progress of this country.”

The Business Barbados Bill aims to address long-standing concerns about the ease of doing business in the country by creating a new government corporation, Business Barbados.

As the House debated the bill, Hinkson reiterated the need for flexible working hours and stronger partnerships with trade unions to improve efficiency.

He said: “Some people will be willing to come into work maybe 11 o’clock in the morning when the traffic clears and work till 8 o’clock or something in the night. This is one of the problems that is curtailing us and it needs serious discussions with the trade unions.” (IMC1)