Barbados Launches Competitiveness Programme

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

23 May 2011

Barbados has launched a four year Competitiveness Programme, designed to support business growth and innovation, lower operating costs, promote research and development and raise productivity.

The initiative, unveiled by Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Chris Sinckler, is worth USD11.8m over four years. USD10m of the funds will be provided under a loan from the Inter-American Bank, agreed to in March, with the remaining USD1.8m earmarked by the government.

Sinckler noted that although the World Economic Forum's latest Global Competitiveness Report ranked Barbados 43 out of 131 countries, it sat lower on the list in terms of innovation, good market efficiency, business sophistication and market size. This, therefore, leaves "much room for improvement".

Sinckler said that: "We have to move hastily to reform our domestic business and financial environment, improve our human resource capacity, develop our technological infrastructure, embrace innovation, strengthen our instruments and institutions of oversight, and generally modify our modus operandi".

In particular, innovation is regarded as crucial to competitiveness, as the government believes it would ultimately improve product quality, lower production costs, raise productivity and drive up profitability.

A series of customs-related measures, including the creation of a single data entry point for the processing and retrieval of information, are to be introduced with a view to strengthening efficiency in the country's customs procedure. Sinckler hopes that the Programme will help push down costs, improve transparency, bolster the domestic market, lower prices and help facilitate government revenue collection.

According to a government release, the funds will also help support an initiative to improve and introduce a geographical concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, service providers and associated institutions, in the form of a 'cluster model'. Among the goals the government is setting for this model are the encouragement of training, the promotion of research and development, the stimulation of innovation, and the realization of greater market penetration and economy-wide competitiveness and growth.

It is also hoped that the costs involved in the movement of people and goods will fall, as logistics and trade are improved, thus rationalizing regulation and the incentive system, and enhancing access to infrastructure through public/private dialogue.

Recommended