Focus on growing business

Facilitating business opportunities; developing partnerships between Barbadians living at home and those living abroad that would lead to investments being made for the country and its citizens; and advancing economic progress are just some of the goals that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean, is hoping to achieve from the Barbados Network Consultation (BNC) 2016 Fourth Diaspora Conference.

 

Speaking with the Barbados Advocate yesterday after a special service for the Barbadian Diaspora community held at The Cathedral Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, Senator McClean said that, among other things, she would like to see Barbadian companies and individual entrepreneurs source into international markets and seek out ways that they can network with other organizations and individuals to find opportunities for studying and/or business development.

 

“Well, I hope that in the conference, we would look at partnering in terms of business start-ups, furthering exposure to the work that Barbadians are doing here and looking to take them into other markets and, basically, making people aware of networks of which they can tap into, whether it is young people looking to further their education or young people looking to find investors from prospective businesses, tapping into the technical and what I call, resources, technical, financial – what I would call the social capital of Barbadians outside of Barbados.”

 

Also on the cards is the chance for Barbadians living overseas to connect with those living in this island in an effort to talk and come to the essence of what it truly means to be Barbadian, which takes on even greater significance as this country approaches its golden jubilee and educating the youth on the contribution that Barbadians, both in the past and present have made to the development of this country, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

 

“So it really is a chance to build those networks in a way that would not only foster business – because we can’t only focus on things economic – but we also want to strengthen the sense of being Barbadian among Barbadians, especially those of second and third generations in the Diaspora, but also at the same time, making young people in the Diaspora aware of what is happening here among our young people, making our young people also aware of the contributions of Barbadians past and present, here and abroad. So it is a range of strengthening ties, strengthening opportunities and of course, building networks and you know, capitalizing on the capacity of Barbadians wherever they are.”