The local private sector is to have urgent talks with the government and police top brass to discuss what it describes as very frightening and deadly gun violence in the country.
Chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA) Trisha Tannis said on Tuesday that while the violence has not yet impacted that sector, she fears that the current unease on the island could keep potential shoppers indoors, particularly during this Christmas season where the outlook for business appears better than last year’s.
The private sector head said she is particularly concerned that crime is growing more “aggressive and deadly”.
“You talk about assault weapons. Those sorts of things could cause mass casualty damage, several persons at once. It’s a very frightening situation and a concern for us. So we look forward to urgently discussing this matter at the national level, and for the private sector to come alongside with what the government is doing to assist it,” she said.
Though there is no timeline set as yet, Tannis expects the proposed talks would also include the leadership of the Barbados Police Service (BPS).
She noted: “We are extremely concerned. We are not seeing the impact yet other than persons being very, very cautious how they go about their daily lives. But what we don’t want to see is persons remaining indoors, not being at rest with how they go about shopping and hustling and bustling for fear of something strange happening.
“I would add that the fact that gun violence is at the gates of our schools and not inside of our schools has not given us any comfort whatsoever. We haven’t begun to see an impact yet, but we don’t want to,” Tannis contended in an interview with Barbados TODAY.
The BPSA head said the business community which will deploy a greater level of security during this period, is no longer faced with the “average” shoplifter or pick-pocket, but with bolder and more hostile types of criminals who are using assault weapons.
Tannis is hoping that the surge in crime and violence would be significantly contained in short order to avoid the possibility of the country losing the economic gains achieved over the past year and a relatively favourable 2022 and 2023.
“I think that the economy is certainly in a better position than it was last year. It is not out of the woods yet, but it is still very dampened on the ground. It is close to peak season or we are hoping it is peak season, where essentially it is good news for retailers and distributors. Therefore, we do hope that it is a very buoyant season,” the business leader declared.
Tannis also has high hopes for the tourism sector in the coming year but suggests that it needs to be stabilised in order to reap maximum and lasting benefits for the country.
“We hope to have a better season than we had last year. That is a very positive development in terms of our economic growth,” she said.
Touching on the challenges which importers have been experiencing with high freight rates and delays, Tannis was encouraged by recent developments.
“Of course the cost is still very high, but the good news is that freighting is finally beginning to normalise. The challenge is though, that you are not likely to see the impact of that until 2023 because of the inventory that is in stock at the moment which is carrying a higher freight price,” the private sector leader disclosed.
She however pointed out that even if there is a stabilisation or reduction in freight costs by next year, the business community will be faced with another price issue that could be passed onto consumers.
“We are seeing materials themselves…are very expensive and trending up. So even as the freight costs begin to drop, we have materials stock that has gone already (out of stock). It remains to be seen how it actually pans out. But I think at least, we should not be seeing a worsening of the overall net position as we head for 2023.
“Hopefully, once we stabilise materials costs and raw materials input as we get into the deeper part of 2023 that we can finally see relief in terms of feed-in price reductions globally,” the chair of the private sector organisation stated.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
