Maritime business is key to the country’s economic survival, the country’s first minister for the blue economy has declared.
Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey, who led the island’s maritime strategy from the start of the Mia Mottley administration in 2018 until February 2022, told the House of Assembly the over $120 million in revenue recorded by the Bridgetown Port Inc. in the 2022/23 financial year is a clear indication of the sector’s important role in the economy.
“We have to get this right,” he told the House of Assembly on Tuesday as he rose in support of the Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic Bill.
Praising the staff of the Bridgetown Port for getting the systems in place for the new management of maritime traffic, Humphrey recalled that tremendous work was done to correct the country’s failings in the maritime space that were highlighted by a 2018 audit.
Pointing to similar legislation from 2021, Humphrey said changes were needed “to right a wrong”.
He labelled the audit discoveries as “an embarrassment to Barbados” and said the island was “missing out on vital opportunities”.
“We fell down in areas of legislation, administration and generally in the attention we were paying to the maritime sector,” said Humphrey who described the sector as one of those “diamonds in the rough”.
“This Bill is bigger than it says. This is about us taking command of our destiny,” the St Michael South MP said.
Humphrey told the House that Barbados is “leading again” as he outlined that the Bridgetown Port had copped awards for the development of the Maritime Single Window.
“Barbados is now ‘best in class’,” he declared.
One of the areas for clarification with the last bill piloted in 2021 surrounded the flow of information and how to guard against ships having to submit multiple versions of the same information to different organisations. The inefficiency would not be to the benefit of Barbados or Barbadians, Humphrey pointed out.
“None of us want to make ships repeat the same thing over and over,” he said. “It makes the destination less appealing, and for a country that depends on cruise and a country that imports most of what we eat, wear, we want ships to want to come to Barbados.”
The minister also called on those who benefit from the government’s “goodwill” in driving reductions in some import charges to pass the cost savings down the line.
(SP)
