There has been a notable, more pro-business shift in the Budget that aligns with Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) II objectives, chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA) Tricia Tannis told a business community post-Budget forum.
Speaking at the forum sponsored by accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Tannis told an audience of industry captains and academia that this year’s Budget ticked several boxes “in a much more compelling way”, compared to last year’s which she said missed the mark.
“Regrettably, due to the imposition of various restrictions brought about by the pandemic, there was lots of unfinished business in the first International Monetary Fund BERT I programme, notably the business facilitation and the reforms and the transformation needed, particularly in the public sector, to support those reforms. Therefore, BERT II essentially came with lots of imperatives that definitely created a lot more urgency around business facilitation and growth [which is] extremely important to BERT II,” Tannis said, noting that the Budget had addressed this.
“There is a sense that things are definitely very well in control as long, dependent, and caveated on the continued growth of the economy. And therefore, we are extremely happy with the majority of the content of the budget. We’ve been asking for several years, if not longer, for ease of doing business, business facilitation, regulatory transparency, and the like.”
At the same time, Tannis called for greater coherence in legislative efforts but cautioned against unintended consequences stemming from disjointed policies.
Citing the need for seamless integration across regulatory frameworks, she again returned to the controversial Labour Clauses (Concessions) Act passed last month to regulate the public money paid to businesses based on their adherence to minimal labour standards.
“I was listening last night, for instance, to see the connection or the nexus between the concessionary amendments that have been announced and the Labour Clauses (Concessions) Act. I didn’t hear it and maybe it’s something that we do need to highlight,” she said.
Expressing concern about productivity and diversification, Tannis lamented the closure of the Barbados Productivity Council, noting that measuring and improving productivity levels in the country were crucial markers of development. She also suggested that a deeper focus on economic diversification beyond traditional sectors was needed to enhance resilience against external shocks.
“With [the closure of the Productivity Council], we lost our capacity, however flawed perhaps, to at least attempt to measure productivity in this country. And as much as we speak about growth, if we don’t speak about productivity similarly and with the same level of passion, we are essentially going to be sub-optimising. However we grow, we are going to be sub-optimising, simply because we’re not going to achieve the multiplier effect of growing productively and sustainably,” the BPSA chairman said.
“There is a bit of urgency and impatience with essentially the investment climate, and that’s understandable. But I would also say that we do need to look more seriously at diversification, and not just diversification within the existing sectors but how do we actually diversify outside of the existing sectors to really bring a high level of resilience.
”Such that if we are hit with a climate catastrophe, we are not wholly dependent on perhaps a much more diversified tourism sector, but still a tourism sector, nevertheless, that is going to be negatively impacted, and catastrophically so, by climate impacts.”
The BCCI also gave a thumbs up to the budgetary proposals. President James Clarke said the initiatives outlined by the Prime Minister sought to “provide incentives in a more navigable regulatory environment to create simpler paths to unlocking private sector capital in the country”.
“The creation of Business Barbados and the digitalisation of all government services onto a common platform, coupled with the strengthening of digital space and skills in Barbados, is most welcome. And this will no doubt feed right into the burgeoning film industry, which utilises many of these same said digital skills,” he said.
Turning his attention to the renewable energy sector, the chamber president expressed concern about inadequate storage capacity on the grid. Urging swift action, he contended an area of investment which required urgent attention was the restarting of the renewable energy market, which he said was currently stalled due to the lack of storage capacity on the grid.
“We understand that the government, specifically the Ministry of Energy and Business, is actively engaged in the procurement of such battery storage whilst the Barbados Light and Power are still awaiting a decision from the Fair Trading Commission regarding their clean energy transition rider application which will allow them to recover the costs associated with the green energy transition including the purchase of storage batteries.
“At present, there is about $60 million tied up in completed renewable energy projects awaiting the installation of storage batteries so that they can be connected to the grid. The time is of the essence to procure these storage systems, to restart the market and to meet Barbados’ clean energy transition goals. So, we all know that the proof of the pudding is in the eating and I certainly like a good pudding as much as anybody else,” Clarke said. (RG)
