Despite the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation’s complaints of millions of dollars in rent owed to the state export promoter, a Government backbench MP has called on Government to draft a new industrial policy.
Christ Church South MP Ralph Thorne was responding to BIDC chairman John Rocheford, who declared in the Estimates hearings in Parliament that it can no longer be business as usual at the corporation.
Rocheford said: “This is not a proper way to run any organisation or any business because we are being asked to continue with our various projects and so on but yet our revenue is decreasing year on year.
He said millions of dollars were collectively owed by a number of industrial estate tenants.
He told lawmakers: “You heard about one organisation owing somewhere in the region of $1.2 million but that is only one. We have other organisations owing us like $944,000, $861,000, $794,000, $596.000, $540,000 and the list goes on.
“Yet these delinquents are allowed to continue to occupy the BIDC space. This has a significant impact on the corporation because increase dependence on Government subvention to support the business development arm of the corporation is not good.
“We need to have less dependence on Government finances because it puts a strain on Government resources. It is also hampering the Corporation’s renovation and retrofitting of its rental spaces. It hampers the maintenance programme of the estates as we have to upkeep the buildings in the various estates.
“We desperately need to build out the proper infrastructure to support entrepreneurs and export in growing and developing their businesses.”
In addressing the House Chairman of Committees Dr Sonia Browne, Thorne stressed that he was not defending delinquencies but saw the crisis as an opportunity for a shift in policy.
The Christ Church South MP said: “I do not intervene in any defence of any deliberate delinquency, [I am] wondering if this crisis really ought not to be translated into embracing a new kind of entrepreneurs.
“There are thousands of young people out there with skills, with an interest in business, and here we have an agency of Government whose portfolio has become that of a rent collection agency.
The MP added: “In the 1970s, 1980s that Grazettes Estate was a hive of employment where foreign businesses were given tax write-offs. I am wondering if we shouldn’t be investing in a policy for our young people. I am focusing on a new and emerging young business class of persons I am wondering if we should not embrace them as we did foreign businesses 40, 50, 60 years ago. We all know when a young person comes into business his problem is capital, he can’t pay rent. Can this be contemplated as a new Government policy?”
Rocheford had earlier said that delinquent tenants must pay or vacate the property as there are others out there who needed to get a chance to display their products.
“We need to make sure we get tenants to pay rent or vacate the space. There are a lot of artisans in Barbados with fantastic products and they would like somewhere to showcase these products,” the BIDC chairman said.
“We met with some of them and came to an arrangement where they would pay something towards the arrears some have not paid a cent since then. I cannot continue. We need to now take action.” (IMC)
