Minister unveils $188m plan to build “world-class” digital economy by 2030 

A $187.8m budget blueprint to drive Barbados’s transformation into a “world-class” digital economy by 2030 was revealed in the House of Assembly on Wednesday, outlining a four-year plan that he said would shift the country from “firefighting” maintenance issues to building cutting-edge digital infrastructure.  

 

Leading the plan is a massive data and green power centre in the north of the island, MPs heard. 

 

It was the Ministry of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology’s (MIST) turn to take the floor in Parliament as the Estimates debate, with line minister Senator Jonathan Reid seeking the appropriations to drive the  transformation of Barbados into a major digital hub by the end of the decade.  

 

Barbados Investment Development Corporation (BIDC) chief executive Mark Hill provided specific details on the inaugural site located in Greenland, St Andrew. Chosen for its security and existing infrastructure, the site is being prepared for a rapid rollout.  

 

The project is designed to scale significantly to meet both public and private needs, with a 100-kilowatt system to be installed and later developed into a 15-megawatt data centre.  

 

The first five megawatts will be developed and owned by the government, while the remaining ten megawatts will be opened to private investors.  

 

“That site will carry both AI compute, cloud services and also green electricity,” the BIDC CEO explained. “Compute requires high levels of electricity, so that location gives us enough space to be able to power the compute and to be able to scale.”  

 

Site clearing at Greenland has already commenced. Hill anticipates a “rapid deployment” of the first layer of compute power, marking the beginning of a new era for the “northern corridor” of St Lucy, St Peter and St Andrew.  

 

Estimates day also marked the beginning of a four-year strategic climb for his ministry, Sen Reid said. Dubbed the “Year of Better”, the 2026–27 fiscal year would lay the foundation for an ambitious timeline: the nation aims to be “Better” by 2027, “Good” by 2028, “Great” by 2029 and “World-Class” by 2030.  

 

Addressing a chamber of MPs and technical experts, the senator requested a total of $187 788 520.20 to fund the transition. He was candid about the current state of the ministry, admitting that until recently, about 80 per cent of administrative energy had been consumed by routine maintenance.  

 

“For too long, we have been in a cycle of ‘firefighting’—addressing minor IT glitches and routine troubleshooting,” the minister said. “This budget is designed to break that cycle. We are building a dedicated infrastructure to handle the basics so that this ministry can focus on the ‘big ticket’ items that drive national development.”  

 

The proposal is a cornerstone of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) 3.0 plan. While tourism and finance remain the bedrock of the Barbadian economy, the ministry argues that the global landscape is being irreversibly altered by artificial intelligence, biotechnology and cybersecurity.  

 

To thrive, the minister suggested that Barbados must treat digital infrastructure—such as national cloud storage and secure digital ID systems—with the same urgency as physical infrastructure.  

 

“In the 21st century, a robust digital ID system or a secure AI framework is just as critical to our sovereignty as our roads, bridges and tunnels,” the minister argued. “We are not just buying technology; we are building the digital soil in which our future economy will grow.”  

 

 Seven pillars of transformation  

 

The ministry’s proposal was structured around seven specific focus areas. A primary objective, he said, was the modernisation of legislation. The ministry intends to lead a legislative overhaul to ensure Barbados possesses “gold-standard” laws on telecommunications, blockchain and electronic transactions.  

 

Beyond law, the focus shifts to talent and capital. The minister highlighted a shift in national philosophy: moving from being a “buyer of things” to a “maker of things”.  

 

The minister told lawmakers that the ultimate metric of success would not be found in budget spreadsheets but in the lived experience of the Barbadian public.  

 

“Success looks like digital services that our citizens actually enjoy using,” Senator Reid said. “It looks like high-quality, high-paying jobs for our youth and a national system that stays online and reliable 24/7. We are embracing the weight of this responsibility because the alternative—staying still while the world moves forward—is not an option.”  

 

He also updated the Finance Committee on plans for a data centre in the parish of St Andrew. The facility aims to provide the “invisible but critical” infrastructure necessary to support the island’s push into artificial intelligence and digitised government services.  

 

Reid emphasised that the move is born out of a need to move away from heavy reliance on foreign storage and compute providers.  

 

While everyday actions—from saving a song to using ChatGPT—feel instantaneous, they require massive physical infrastructure. For Barbados, bringing that infrastructure home is a matter of national security, said Senator Reid.  

 

“We have underinvested in our infrastructure for a long period of time,” the minister stated. “We need to have the infrastructure in place that allows … our information to be stored [so] that these things become ours and we keep them in good stead. They are not subject to any other person’s or any other state’s whims and fancies.”  

 

While acknowledging that the high-tech inputs and specialised skills required for such a project are expensive, the minister noted that the investment is a “fundamental” component of the national Budget.

The 188m digital leap: What to Know

• Indigenous innovation: Through programmes such as the Giga initiative and Supernova Lab accelerators, the government aims to foster start-ups.
• Talent attraction: The strategy involves courting highly skilled global professionals to collaborate with local innovators.
• Economic value: The ministry estimates that this digital leap could inject between $2bn and $3bn in new value into the economy.