Mottley hints at Welcome Stamp changes

by Marlon Madden

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has hinted that changes will be made to the 12-month Barbados Welcome Stamp initiative as the country seeks to further boost its population.

The live and work initiative, which was introduced in July last year, is aimed at attracting individuals from around the globe to work remotely in Bridgetown for up to a year while contributing to the economy. They have the option of reapplying for the visa once their time has expired.

Addressing the recent Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) luncheon, which was held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre under the theme Building Bridges for a Successful Economic Recovery, Mottley said the time had come to make changes to the Welcome Stamp programme.

While not going into detail about likely changes to the initiative, Mottley pointed to the dwindling Barbados population, explaining that soon the island will need more people to live here and work.

“We captured the world’s attention with the Welcome Stamp, but it is now time to tweak that further in order to be able to recognise that the combination of factors that lies before us strategically with respect to a diminishing population and the need for a greater long-stay tourism, creates an opportunity for us to rethink the visitor and hospitality economy in fundamental ways,” she said.

“This world is not going to be the same after the pandemic, and that is why we need to make the point that COVID recovery is all of our business,” she added.

Among the criteria for the Welcome Stamp visa is that individuals should be earning at least US$50,000 per year and have insurance coverage or have an arrangement in place to get one on island.

The cost for the visa is US$2,000 per person or US$3,000 per family. Pointing to the need for upgrades in the tourism sector to attract more long-stay visitors, Mottley said, “If ever there was a time to retool, refurbish and repurpose, it is now”, adding that the Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation (BEST) programme provided that opportunity.

She said: “As we start to open back up to the world, there has to be something different about what we are offering because everybody else is bringing their ‘A game’ to the table in order to encourage people to come and visit, work and participate”.

marlonmadden@barbadostotday.bb