EDITORIAL: Pursue opportunities with Guyana
AS Barbados sets about repositioning its economy, forging new economic relations and building on existing ones will have to be part of the template in dealing with the problems confronting this country.
Last week the president of Guyana, the Honourable David Granger, said his country hopes to conclude a framework agreement with Barbados aimed at promoting economic cooperation. He went on to state that his Government sees the future of Guyana in the Caribbean and the Caribbean’s future in Guyana. He remarked also that the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), the flagship for greater CARICOM integration, is the way to build more resilient economies, not only in the Caribbean but also in Guyana.
From this vantage point in Barbados, those overtures from the South American country present opportunities for us here to explore ways where the two CARICOM countries can build on their existing relations, and cooperate and benefit in the future. Currently, growth in the Barbados economy has been restricted to Tourism and Construction, whilst International Business and Financial Services sector – another plank in attracting foreign investments – continues to have a rough patch. These sectors are not enough for the economic future of Barbados, which at this time is focusing more on economic stabilization. As such this country has to do better if it wants to recover from the slump it has experienced over the last couple years.
President of the Barbados Economics Society (BES), Shane Lowe is today quoted in our Business publication as calling for foreign direct investments to help with fueling the growth that Barbados requires. It is also important to note the more than $250 million that the island has lost as a result of changes to Canadian tax rules and other pressures being mounted by the global community, in particular the Organization for Economic Cooperation and development (OECD,) who has set itself up as the watch dog for financial rules when it comes to how countries manage their International Business and Financial Services sector.
This means that Barbados has to take fresh guard. Guyana therefore is one opportunity that Barbados must pursue, given the potential there. Guyana is proving to be a lucrative market for Barbados’ exports. Recent trade statistics have indicated that Barbados’ exports to that market have picked up considerably. The country is gradually becoming the newest oil well in the Caribbean and again this comes with potential that can be grasped by Barbadians. We know that some Barbadians have gone into Guyana and made investments, and once permission is given, these initiatives must not end there. Barbados has to further its manufacturing and agricultural sectors.
We must do like the British. We must not only build on the opportunities being presented by Guyana, but on the others offered by developing countries in this hemisphere, notably the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Central America and Costa Rica, with whom Barbados has bilateral agreements.
As the world looks on it appears that the move by the British government to move out of the European Union is proving more difficult that the hype to do so. Over the last two weeks controversy has been surfacing over the negotiations between the British authorities and the European Union. Time is running out for Barbados and we have to act decisively and go after the opportunities which are being presented.