Government is moving to establish a commercial court as one of its initiatives to make doing business here easier and attract more investment.
Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn made the disclosure on Wednesday during a press conference at Government Headquarters.
“If we get business done for Barbadians faster,” he contended, “then business will be done for anybody faster. But we recognise that there is still some work to be done in relation to the overall mechanics of the doing business component. I have before me, a piece of legislation to look at bankruptcy and insolvency, which is one of the elements still outstanding – the establishment of a commercial court on the one end. But as I said, we are genuinely looking at all of the mechanics in relation to that.”
Straughn said there is a need for a specialised tribunal dedicated to adjudicating cases in commercial matters.
“We do have elements of commercial court right now, for there are judges that deal with these matters. But the training that is required, obviously, for the judges and the legal [minds] that are involved…we have to beef up staff, for example, at the Office of the Supervisor of Insolvency,” he said.
“Just bear in mind this is an area of the economy that we really don’t want people to have to go to because we are talking about when something goes wrong with their entity. But, more broadly, where there are disputes, we need to make sure there are resolution mechanisms in place between matters of the state and private sector that can be more efficiently dispatched, so that, for example, things are not tied up.”
Straughn identified the government’s target of building 2 000 houses per year and the intention to significantly cut the length of the mortgage process for Barbadians as other examples of efforts to speed up the business turnaround process.
“So, rather than a mortgage taking six months to execute, it means that if you can execute it in two weeks, that then unlocks investment faster for people to be able to build their homes.… We are really focusing on how do we get business done, faster,” the minister reasoned.
However, he argued that it was not the responsibility of the government alone to fix the problem. He said there are issues in the private sector that also need to be addressed.
“And therefore, the focus is to do away with all of those cobwebs that were there from traditional processes and usher in something that is more predictable…. So, there is still work to be done, admittedly, but I think we have been able to make some progress in that respect, with more predictability around the planning and those types of things,” Straughn said.
He assured that with each iteration, an increasing level of domestic and foreign investment will be witnessed. (EJ)
