Prime Minister Mia Mottley has announced a new project that will lead to the construction of a modern convention and conference centre.
The Geriatric Hospital, formerly the St Michael’s District Hospital, on the grounds of the Victorian-era St Michael’s Almshouse on Beckles Road, is to become a convention and conference centre, as the government continues on a path to transform Barbados into a premier hub for commerce, trade, and conventions.
The announcement was made during the groundbreaking ceremony for the new African Trade Centre and Caribbean headquarters of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), on the site of the former General Hospital on Jemmotts Lane. Prime Minister Mottley described the move as the beginning of a new chapter in public-private sector collaboration.
“For a country that has as mature a tourism product as Barbados does, for us not to have a dedicated conference and convention centre is a travesty,” she said.
“And for us to have used a building outside of the tourism belt for the better part of the last 30 years as that location, is to undermine our own opportunities.”
The Geriatric Hospital is expected to relocate to a new state-of-the-art facility within the National Botanical Gardens later this year.
That move will free up prime real estate near the city centre, which the prime minister said was ideally located to support a major events hub.
“We shall use that site there to create new opportunities for a convention centre that can be served in a few years by no less than 10 000 people in a one square mile radius,” she declared, referring to the dense development and connectivity in the area, “ensuring that the minister of tourism can truly now go and promote Barbados”.
Mottley revealed that Barbados has often had to turn down major event-hosting opportunities due to the absence of a modern, dedicated convention facility.
“Right now, [the tourism minister] has to dodge, and dodge, and when people say, we want to come, we have to ask how many people will be here? That cannot be the Barbados that we want,” she said.
The prime minister emphasised that the planned convention centre will be developed through a public-private partnership, allowing the government to focus its resources on social development while still enabling critical infrastructure investments that generate long-term economic security.
She also hinted that the ongoing discussions with Afreximbank include opportunities for investment support, suggesting the bank could play a role in financing or facilitating the development.
“This partnership has only just begun,” Mottley said.
“The government is then able to deploy its resources for the benefit of the people of this nation where we truly need it, while ensuring a public-private partnership to develop for us a conference centre which has the potential for economic and financial security.”
The new convention centre, when completed, is expected to boost Barbados’ global competitiveness in the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) market, attract new visitor segments, and create hundreds of jobs in construction, tourism, and support services., said the PM.
(SB)
