Senate passes business reform bill aimed at ‘reducing hurdles’

The Senate on Friday approved sweeping legislation to reshape the country’s business landscape by establishing a new state agency to streamline business processes and protect intellectual property rights.

The Business Barbados Bill, which garnered bipartisan support during Friday evening’s debate, seeks to position the island as a more competitive business destination by reducing bureaucratic hurdles that have historically hampered both local and foreign investment.

The legislation aims to create a more business-friendly environment through streamlined processes, enhanced intellectual property protection and reduced administrative barriers for both domestic and international investors.

“If we want to compete, we cannot get into a mode of ‘I have arrived’,” declared Minister in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment Senator Chad Blackman.

“This Bill must be the platform for us to launch back into a mode of the best…. Nothing but the best must be good enough for Barbados.”

Citing the United Arab Emirates as an exemplar, he told senators: “In Sharjah, you can create a registered business in six minutes.”

He envisions the legislation positioning Barbados as a “prime business destination” by cutting through bureaucracy and fostering a more agile environment for entrepreneurs and corporations alike.

“It has never been a secret that conducting business in Barbados is a bit difficult,” said Government Senator John King who highlighted how one prominent Barbadian entrepreneur had been forced to launch her products abroad “because of the many problems she had”.

He said the new Directorate for Intellectual Property would empower young innovators.

“This gives us the opportunity to encourage those young persons… who have these types of ideas to be more confident that they are protected and that there is a framework within which they can patent things, trademarks, all of this sort of stuff,” he said. “We look out and we marvel at the Elon Musks of today, but there is nothing that says that Barbados cannot produce the next Elon Musk.”

Independent Senator Lindell Nurse pointed to stark contrasts with other jurisdictions: “In the Cayman Islands, for example, you can have a business startup… established in two days, three days. In Barbados… it could be anywhere between two weeks to six weeks or sometimes even longer.”
While supporting the legislation, Independent Senator Kevin Boyce urged greater transparency about the new state agency.

“The issue in relating and discussing state-owned enterprises always causes public scrutiny…. Let us know the costs, let us know the risks,” he said.

“Doing business in Barbados… it’s not easy. All of us here can tell a story; some will say a horror story,” Senator Boyce added, noting that even filing an annual return “can take months” and that simply “doing business in Barbados is a hurdle” (RG)