DLP calls for a new Barbados

The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) is calling on Government to urgently find a new revenue earner” to replace the bread and butter tourism sector which it said was now in “tatters”

In a statement issued today, the party stressed the need to diversify the economy and build “a new Barbados” where the wellbeing of citizens is paramount.

Below is the full statement issued by the DLP:

TOWARDS A NEW BARBADOS

While the country was distracted by the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) inclusion of former Minister of Finance Christopher Sinckler, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP)
wishes to draw your focus towards the critical features of the Prime Minister’s speech.
The news that the unemployment fund is in need of capitalisation is the most stark reality, given its relationship to the second undeniable point: that tourism, our major revenue earner, is in tatters.
This has a direct impact on several other industries which feed into or out of tourism. Our revenue earning capacity is in need of a total rethink and rebuild.
In the Centennial Errol Barrow memorial lecture in January this year, the need to diversify the economy was a central pillar of the development of a brand new, self-sufficient Barbados.
This was prescient as we are thrust immediately into that mode. We need as a matter of urgency to find a replacement revenue earner. And in the meantime, get used to a new normal.
This latter point is critical because of the third stark message from the Prime Minister:
That our supply chains have been disrupted, even if temporarily.
We know this to be true as we follow the shutdowns around the world and appreciate the domino effect.
We may have baulked at the idea before but we must get to the point where we can feed ourselves. Our tastebuds must be retrained to eat what we produce. And we must never drop the ball again.
Give agriculture its due respect.
We also must spend time cultivating a brand new revenue earner which is not as fickle and is quintessentially Barbadian.
This revenue earner will be one which will cushion us from external shocks and allow us room to meet our significant debt liability, not least to the International Monetary Fund.
The intention is to shape a different Barbados, where the spotlight is on Barbados and Barbadians, a society which places the wellbeing of people as the primary objective of policy making. For it cannot be acceptable, post-covid, that so many of our people are at breaking point after missing just one paycheck.

The Democratic Labour Party