Special COVID-19 bonds, financial support for entrepreneurs and testing of all medical workers and those at the island’s ports of entry, are some of the recommendations coming from former Central Bank Governor Dr DeLisle Worrell.
These were among several suggestions outlined in his April economic letter, for the country to effectively manage the fallout associated with the ongoing pandemic.
Worrell said Barbados now had an opportunity to acquire test kits, personal protective gear and medical supplies and equipment to cope with a possible surge in COVID-19 cases.
Said Worrell: “Also, the country should ramp up our capacity for testing, the availability of quarantine and the creation of additional treatment facilities for the very ill. All medical personnel in the country should be tested as soon as possible, for their own peace of mind, as well as in the national interest.
“All workers at the port and airport, and those involved in the recent transfer of cruise ship passengers should also be tested, as soon as practical.”
Acknowledging that efforts were underway to support those who have been laid off as a result of the closures of hotels, restaurants and other businesses, he said measures to speed up the payment of unemployment benefits were also welcomed.
He said: “Those benefits should continue for the duration of the period of unemployment resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. Grants or other financial support should also be available across the board for taxi operators, hairdressers, owners of gyms and spas, other self-employed persons and workers in the informal sector.
“It may also be necessary to provide support for profitable larger enterprises if they would otherwise not be in a position to carry on when economic activity resumes in the country”.
The economist also recommended that government issue “special COVID-19 bonds with a low-interest rate and a sufficiently long grace period, to be bought by the Central Bank of Barbados”.
He explained: “These bonds should be issued in whatever quantity is needed to fully finance both the medical requirements for containing COVID-19 and the income maintenance support for workers and companies,” as he pointed to similar credit offers in the US and European Union.
Worrell, who served two terms as Central Bank governor between 2009 and 2017, also warned that Government “look towards the reawakening of tourist activity as soon as international circumstances permit”.
He said given that Barbados depended on foreign currency inflows from tourism for 67 cents of every dollar spent on food, fuels, and other imports of supplies and equipment, Barbadian livelihoods could not be sustained beyond “a matter of months” unless tourism inflows resumed.
“In the meanwhile, the country will depend on import finance on the Central Bank’s foreign reserves, expected loan proceeds from the Caribbean Development Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank, plus new emergency loans which the International Monetary Fund has offered to its members,” he said.
“How soon airlines resume flying to the Caribbean is not within the purview of the Government of Barbados. However, it is advisable for the Government to join with Caribbean tourist destinations, members of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association and major airlines, to begin to strategise about the circumstances and conditions under which tourist traffic might resume.”
In this way, he said, the country would be able to put measures in place to ensure that it was among the first in the region to be offered a resumption of airline connections.
Warning that the COVID-19 crisis had “implications” for the organisation and management of health care in Barbados, Worrell said future visitors to Barbados may be expected to demand a quality of health services on par with what is available in their home countries.
Worrell said: “Our health care system, like our public services in general, is in need of a complete makeover, including more highly skilled management, and modern facilities and organisation.”
He suggested that Government should “engage the services of the world’s foremost international consultants, and solicit the help of the Chinese, whose extraordinary capabilities in the design and supply of health care facilities are on full display in the ongoing global crisis”.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
