#BTColumn – We can make it if we try

by Michael Ray

In his column on Monday, January 18, 2021, in the Daily Nation newspaper, Harry Russell Wild Coot asked the question – How will Barbados foot the bill.

The answer is simple. Other than Tourism and  International/Offshore Business  – Industries that have earned the bulk of foreign currency for Barbados over the years – national planners along with an interested, energized and willing local investors must create businesses that can earn significant foreign currency.

To merely engage in importation and retail trade is not the most productive way to build our economy.

In tandem with the establishment of industries capable of earning foreign currency, there must be policies and initiatives in place to reduce if not totally eliminate the massive outflows (of foreign currency) for the payment of imported items such as food and fossil fuels.

Special attention has got to be paid to the following dynamics and influential forces

1) Tourism, inspite of its potential, is an industry exposed to both external and internal shocks.

2) The modus operandi of our national economic planners should always include a Plan B and a Plan C if possible.

3) Expansion and diversification of the island’s economic base comprising of agriculture, agro-processing, and the manufacturing of renewable energy  components such as solar panels and wind-turbines will go a long way towards both the earning of foreign currency revenue and reduction of expenditure.

The key to unlocking the treasure chest of foreign  currency is the ability and capacity to produce products and services that can maintain a competitive edge on the world market while at the same time provide substitutes for imports, particularly food and petroleum products.

We are not yet lost to opportunities in Barbados to plan a systematic and integrated three-prong approach of (1) diversifying economically, (2) export-focussed production and (3) production towards import substitution.

Executive vice-chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank, 61-year old billionaire Uday Kotak made an interesting and thought-provoking statement – “As we were all growing up, there used to be a very big mantra in India which was called ‘export or perish.’ There was a long period when we used to focus on import substitution”.

In terms of nominal Gross Domestic Product, India is now the third richest country in the world behind Japan and Germany.

Trinidadian calypsonian Black Stalin reminds us “We could make it if we try”.