Cummins’ promise

MINISTER SAYS REFORM COMING

TO CAIPO

Amid complaints in the past about the time it takes to register a company or incorporate a business in Barbados, newly appointed Minister of Energy and Business Senator Lisa Cummins is promising that a reform of the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office (CAIPO) is on the way.

Speaking on Resolution: Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) Plan 2022, Senator Cummins said that the reform of CAIPO is a critical component of what the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration has to do with making changes to state owned enterprises.

“The reform of CAIPO is a critical component of what this administration has to do with the state owned enterprises and I am committed, as were my predecessors, to ensuring that we are in a position to reform that entity once and for all in order to make Barbados a place where you can do business efficiently and effectively in a timely manner,” she said.

The Minister added: “But CAIPO is just one, you have the Urban Development Commission (UDC), the Rural Development Commission (RDC), National Housing Corporation (NHC), the Agricultural Management Trust, the Agricultural Management Fund, all of these are entities that are in need of a state owned enterprise reform.

“And this administration, Mr President, has identified a dedicated team already functioning within the Government who have been given responsibility for the reform of each one of these entities. These are team members who are already constituted in the Government’s economic and financial team. We have divided up the state owned enterprises among the team in order to go in and ensure that we are able to do the reform.”

Senator Cummins stressed that she was confident that her Government’s debt management strategy is what it needs to be, with the guidance and oversight of the international community. She said she was also confident that the balance between debt and expenditure was being driven by a debt management framework and a growth strategy meant to increase revenue.

“And I am confident that the work that I have not even begun to mention, including the outcomes of the Population Commission which create a direct correlation between the size of the population and GDP growth and debt service capacity, that all of those things when they come into the fullness of time will contribute to Barbados being well positioned to recover from crisis after crisis and then be in a position to say we are moving forward. It’s a transformational future for our people led by the Government of Barbados,” Cummins said.

While noting that Barbados embarked on the first phase of the BERT programme in 2018 to stabilise a financially distressed economy, Senator Cummins pointed out that there is nothing static about Government’s policies and interventions which are dependent on a number of changing factors. She said that as Barbados continues to be impacted by crises including the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, a changing and constantly evolving response from the Government is required to keep the country in operation mode.

“I am certain Mr President that the critics of Government’s policy would not expect that in 2022 that the Government of Barbados would still be responding only, narrowly, to the crises that we put on the table in full visibility of the public and people of Barbados in 2018, as if nothing has happened since then. That would surely not be logical, it would not be what is expected of us and so the Government has had to evolve a policy overtime,” she said.

The Minister argued that in 2018 the BERT plan restored macro economic stability at that time and placed the economy on a sustainable and inclusive growth path and committed to treat the longstanding issues impacting fiscal growth. (AH)