Top business school’s students study Barbados

International business students from the oldest business school in the United States — Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania — are here on a study tour.

Organised by the school’s Global Immersion Programme, the tour aims to provide the students with insights into trade and business dynamics, particularly from the perspective of a small island developing state.

The students got the opportunity to meet government officials in various industries during a conference held at the Radisson Aquatica Barbados, Aquatic Gap, St. Michael.

During her address, keynote speaker Minister of State for Higher Education and Technical and Vocational Training Sandra Husbands gave the students an insight into the mechanics and operation of Barbados’ trade policy. She spoke on behalf of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kerry Symmonds.

She said the Government’s trade policy was interlaced with other governmental initiatives to secure market access for the export of Barbadian goods and services and grow, develop and expand local productive and service sectors.

The minister told the business students the domestic market was too small to achieve the type of economic development needed and it was necessary to broaden horizons into the regional and extra-regional markets. CARICOM is the major market for Barbados’ exports, she noted, but that alone was not enough to expand and grow domestic businesses and help the country achieve growth and economic development.

“For those reasons, there has been an active push to diversify our trade by pursuing free trade and partial scope arrangements with other countries in the hemisphere,” Husbands said. “These expanded markets allow for greater and more effective market access for goods from Barbados and the wider CARICOM market,” she said, adding that CARICOM countries worked to establish arrangements with developed countries such as the United States and Canada and other regional blocs such as the United Kingdom.

“To increase exports and attract investment, Barbados has also intensified its engagement with the African continent and with Gulf States. We have opened diplomatic missions in Kenya, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates. In addition to trade, Barbados is positioning itself to be a prime source of investment from African and Middle Eastern countries. The Afreximbank, a Pan-African multilateral financial institution, has set up its CARICOM Office in Barbados, to serve as a conduit for the influx of investment out of Africa. Effective market access into these foreign markets, both regionally and extra regionally, simply means that there are foreign exchange flows into Barbados which should by extension lead to economic growth for the country.”

These foreign exchange flows enabled small developing states to upkeep their road infrastructure, maintain and build schools and provide the necessary health care to citizens, the minister told the students.

Following her remarks, there was a panel discussion which included Minister of Finance Ryan Straughn, Minister of Energy and Business Senator Lisa Cummins, Ambassador Elizabeth Thompson and the director of the Roofs to Reefs Programme Ricardo Marshall, during which the students were able to ask questions and directly engage with the officials.

The week-long study tour is intended to give the business majors an opportunity to learn about the island’s culture and heritage through a variety of scheduled activities.

Founded in 1881, Wharton is the second-largest American business school behind Harvard.
(SZB)