Private Sector uneasy over doing business ease

The local business community is not impressed with the pace at which work is being done to improve the ease of doing business in Government agencies and departments.

Pointing to what has appeared to be a slowdown in the process, Chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Association Edward Clarke told Barbados TODAY that while some progress has been made in the last year, more should have been done by now.

“I am not happy with the progress to be honest. I don’t think anybody can sit here and say we are happy with the progress we have made as a country. We have got to do a lot better, and that is with Government, private sector and labour,” said the private sector boss during a recent wide-ranging interview.

“We have got to work together to do it, and we have to start doing – start making the changes that are necessary. We have seen some improvements but there is a lot to be done and we have not been fast at it. So I would like to see a more focused approach on the way on how we can improve doing business in Barbados,” said Clarke.

So far, Government has introduced an online payment system for those seeking to pay their land tax, an online application process for Police Certificate of Character, and implemented a new automated data system at the Customs Department, which has been resulting in less time for goods to be cleared at the Bridgetown Port.

Major changes have also been made at the Town and Country Planning Department to help speed up the application process there.

However, businesses are not yet able to make their personal income tax payments, Value Added Tax (VAT) payments and Corporation tax payments online as promised.

And with one of the major sticking points for businesses being the inefficient processes associated with conducting business at the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office (CAIPO), Government is yet to carry out the restructuring of that agency.

Government is to also update the decades-old Liquor Licence Act to dramatically cut the time applicants would normally wait, from four months to only a week.

It is hoped that Government would also digitize the processes at the Barbados Licensing Authority.

Clarke said: “We were hoping that by now we would be able to see some way in the Licensing Authority where we would be able to pay for our licences online.

“So I am hoping that outside of the land tax change that this comes pretty soon. We understand it is coming but we hope it materializes in this quarter or the second quarter,” he said.

Through the social partnership arrangement, several sub-committees consisting of representatives from the public sector, private sector and labour movement, have been established to focus on the improvement in the ease of doing business as Government seeks to digitize its entire operations as part of its Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation programme ((BERT).

Clarke argued that despite some progress in the overall efforts individuals were still wasting too much time in long lines as they took time from work to conduct business with various Government departments and agencies.

“I think the Government would admit they are behind to where they had hoped to be at this time and we are working with them diligently to try and make sure that Barbados moves to that stage,” he said.

“There is no doubt CAIPO is a big issue in registration. I know Government has been looking at it, but CAIPO is an issue that needs to be addressed with utmost urgency for us to retain the new investors coming in and for us to attract them first of all and not be defeated by the competition who are not giving us a good name,” said Clarke.

Chief Executive Officer of the BPSA Anne Reid told Barbados TODAY she was confident the sub-committees set up to examine the systems and processes were still working to identify some of the bottlenecks and put new procedures in place.

“This augurs well that we acknowledge we have to do something about it and actually start to do the background work to get it done.

“We are hopeful that in the months to come through the tri-partite relationship, that we are all working towards improving the ease of doing business so that Barbados can raise its performance at all levels,” said Reid.

At the same time, Clarke called on private sector bosses to continue to raise their own standards, indicating that many of them still needed to become more modern and efficient in how they operated.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb