Toppin’s plea

Bring more foreign business into Barbados.

That is the plea from Minister of International Business and Industry, Ronald Toppin to stakeholders in the business sector at the start of International Business Week.

During a church service at the Covenant Life Teaching Centre on Sunday morning, he encouraged officials from the Barbados International Business Association (BIBA), not to be daunted by seemingly never-ending obstacles affecting the sector.

Despite changing international regulatory standards, Toppin said it was important the country regained and maintained its global competitiveness. To this end, he stressed the need for the country’s international business sector to attract new business.

“Expanding business overseas means reaching and attracting new clients or customers and potentially boosting profits on the growth of our economy,” explained Toppin.

“Given the dynamic global environment in which we operate, this will entail not only adhering to the highest standard of international standards, but also facilitating the ease of starting and doing business in Barbados by inter alia, providing a network that is buttressed by cutting edge IT systems.”

He added: “If we fail to embrace change, then we are going to miss many transformative opportunities and our nation will not realise growth. All such opportunities must therefore be seized and honed to strengthen the competitiveness of our island as a global hub for business.” (KS)