Belle, Hinds say Gov’t will have hands full dealing with economy, crime in new year

Dealing with the economy and crime should be Government’s main focus heading into 2023.

That is the view of political scientists Dr George Belle and Dr Kristina Hinds, who both believe that the Mia Mottley-led administration will have its hands full, tackling the two critical issues next year.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Dr Belle said the country’s continuing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and managing its debt have to be prioritised.

“In the new year Barbados will have to continue to try to recover from the pandemic and from its debt problems that were predating the pandemic. Certain policies like BERT 1 [Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation Programme] and BERT 2, have been implemented to try to get through the debt problems, and the IMF [International Monetary Fund] programme lives on.

“So far nobody has been particularly negative. There have been very limited negative conclusions on that policy and there is the assertion that the policies are working and Barbados is continuing to recover. So in 2023 again one would be seeing if they can continue that kind of level of optimism in relation to the performance of the economy. But we have the global situation which is impacting us and threatening to undermine some of the recovery programmes,” Dr Belle said.

Additionally, he stressed, rising crime on the island also needed to be addressed.

Dr Belle said the success of Government’s recent initiatives should be realised in 2023.

“Towards the end of the year we saw an attempt to step up the methodology in relation to restraining that activity. I felt for a long time there had not been sufficient attention paid to new methodologies in relation to intervening on criminal matters, especially the rising gun crime,” the political scientist noted.

Dr Hinds, a senior lecturer in Political Science at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, called for a different approach to dealing with crime on the island.

“The crime situation needs to be addressed, but I think it needs to be addressed in a way that speaks to getting at the root rather than just arresting a lot of young fellas who are the branches,” Dr Hinds said.

“The economy is always going to be something of significance and considering the global climate that signals that there may be recessions in the developed countries of the world I think we have to be very sober in our expectation for 2023.”

Dr Hinds, an independent senator, said she was also looking forward to having a revamped Constitution as a Republic hopefully completed in 2023.

(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)