EDITORIAL: Getting serious about economic restructuring

PLANS to restructure  the Barbados economy have been on the radaar for many years. How much progress can be made now that COVID has given the economy a massive hit, is still very much debateable in these stressful economic times.

There is no point continuing to pay lip service to pressing problems because no one else is going to do for Barbados, the appropriate things if we are to move ahead.

One week ago The Barbados Advocate’s Business Monday quoted comments made by Gervase Warner who heads up Massy Holdings Limited, the Trinidad and Tobago owned conglomerate which also has operations in Barbados and in a number of countries in the Caribbean. He said that we in this region have got to find ways to grow our economies ourselves, something that requires the discipline we are not accustomed to having.

However, the CEO went further by arguing that productivity drives economic growth, it is productivity that allows countries to be competitive, to use the emerging digital platform to do the necessary things that help to drive progress.

The road map for economic restructuring has been formulated by both the previous administration and the current one. It involves putting Governments public finances in order, dealing with the debt problems, and repositioning Barbados to be in a position to earn more foreign direct investment.

Restructuring the Barbados economy is not an overnight job, but rather a medium to long term project which must be taken seriously it has to include a series of policy measures that will give meaning to the concept.

So far the country has seen some improvements in a more stable government fiscal position. But overall debt which came down is back up.

There is a consensus that the economic model which Barbados has followed for decades is no longer viable in the current environment since the talk these days is to rebuild and build back better.

Beyond repositioning our economic sectors – and not just tourism – to earn foreign exchange, provide jobs and sustainable economic growth, and repay the massive debt which is likely to prove troublesome in the future, there are other things that must be done.

As noted earlier by the Massy Holdings Limited official, for the Caribbean and not just for Barbados, this country has to be more productive and competitive since the island’s trading partners are doing things to better themselves.

Our institutions have to be managed by people who know what they are about rather than by those who land political jobs.

These institutions have to be very professional in their output so as to avoid criticisms when their surveys and studies are called into question by knowledgeable experts.

Barbados also has to decide on how it is going to provide financing for small and medium sized enterprises which have wasted no effort in highlighting the failure to secure assistance from the mainstream banking system.

One former Government official is reported recently as saying, serious changes have to be made to the way we do business, structure our Government, in the way the  private sector is structured, and interacts with Government.

These therefore amount to some of the objectives that must be followed once the country’s managers are willing and serious about bring Barbados out of its present position.