Barbados Looks To Reinforce International Financial Sector

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

27 December 2013

Speaking at a recent forum of CARIFORUM ministers responsible for financial services and international business, Barbados's minister Donville Inniss highlighted the key contribution of the international financial services sector to the island's economic and fiscal recovery.

Inniss highlighted that as recently as 2011, the international business and financial services sector represented 17 percent of the region's gross domestic product. For Barbados, the sector had contributed BBD180.2m (USD90.1m) to corporation taxes in 2012, an increase from BBD161.2m in 2011. The sector's overall estimated contribution to the Barbados economy for 2012 was BDD874m or 10.3 percent of GDP, compared to BBD806m, or 9.3 per cent of GDP, in 2011.

Admitting that more work is needed to further boost its development, Inniss announced that the Ministry would soon be unveiling its five-year Strategic Plan for the International Business sector for 2014-2019. He explained that a component of this strategy will be building the jurisdiction's ties with Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, by pursuing additional tax treaties. To date, Barbados has 24 Double Taxation Agreements with 33 countries and over 4,000 registered international business entities.

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