Co-operatives to look at impact of foreign ownership on jobs

Oriel Doyle, President of the Barbados Co-operative Business Association has stated one of the issues that needs to be addressed in Barbados is the impact of foreign ownership of local entities.

 

He was speaking yesterday at the office in the Baobab Towers at a press conference discussing the plans of the upcoming International Co-operators Day (ICU Day) 2016 that will take place July 2nd at Pelican Village from 8am to 6pm entitled ‘A Village-A-Fair’.

 

Doyle asserted at the press conference, “We need to demonstrate a greater effort in exercising control over resources be it financial or otherwise. They are those among us who believe that local entities must be owned and controlled by those who are foreign to this country, that thinking has led to massive layoffs, reduced personal savings. Eventually this will lead to a loss of capital either by way of dividends or earnings by various sectors of our economy not reaching our shores at all.”

 

He also stated, “Just this week we have been made aware of pending layoffs from a company that was once proudly locally owned and despite the fact that the same company recorded significant profits both at year end and first quarter. This begs the question: Had this company remained in Barbadian hands would these layoffs have occurred? These are some of the issues we will address during our activities.”

 

The church service to commence the activities will be Sunday, June 26th at Whitepark Wesleyan Holiness Church at 8 am and a lunch time Co-operative Forum will be held at the Baobab Towers on June 29th from 12 midday to 2pm, the speakers will be Dr. Philmore Alleyne, Lecturer in Accounting at UWI and Jeremy Stephen, Lecturer in Economics at UWI discussing the topic, ‘Is the Co-operative Sector the missing link in Barbados economic recovery?’

 

Doyle who is also the Chairman of ICU Day Planning Committee explained  ‘Co-operatives : The power to act for a sustainable future’ . “Our theme this year is in recognition of the UN’s Sustainable  Development Goals at this time that governments, international bodies and civil society are exploring how to best implement the 2030 Agenda.”

 

We are encouraging Co-operatives to celebrate this day by educating their members about the Sustainable Development Goals and how the sector can achieve them. They can also set ambitious internal targets to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, and share their progress with those around us.

 

Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The one most appropriate or relevant co-operatives would be goal number one is to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. By 2030 ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial service, including microfinance. We in Barbados are not doing so well in this area. Our statistics in unemployment and the deterioration of the quality of our social services demand that we pay special attention to the Developmental Goals.”  (NB)