Barbados And India Explore Closer Investment Links

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

16 February 2006

Representatives from the governments of Barbados and India have discussed the possibility of forging closer economic links that would open up a greater number of investment opportunities and lead to the possible conclusion of a bilateral double taxation avoidance agreement.

A recent meeting between India’s new High Commissioner to Barbados, Ashok Kumar Sharma, and Barbados' Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Dame Billie Miller, touched on possible cooperation in the areas of financial services and information communications technology, as well as agriculture, pharmaceuticals and alternative sources of energy, in particular solar energy.

The High Commissioner also spoke of an initiative by his country last year to improve economic relations with CARICOM member countries, noting that there were enhanced opportunities for economic cooperation in the light of CARICOM’s success in forging a single market and its efforts to effect a single economy by 2008.

The Senior Minister also emphasised the need for Barbados and India to begin discussions on concluding a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTA), thus creating the necessary enabling legal environment for investment between the two countries.

Both parties agreed that a process of engaging the private sectors of their countries needed to be put in place and identified Business/Trade Missions to each other’s country as an effective means of advancing economic cooperation.

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