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Business View Caribbean
Canada that do business in Barbados in a global en-
vironment,” he states. “We have been able to grow
business, in spite of the Recession, by creating new
products - particularly in the insurance field and the
overall tax system.”
Some of the country’s financial products that help at-
tract international capital include: Incorporated Cell
Companies (ICCs) which comprise incorporated cells
as part of their legal corporate structure; Foundations,
which are legal entities that have hybrid features of
both a company and a trust; and four types of Trusts:
International, Offshore, Domestic, and Private. “And
these things help, not only to create new business op-
portunities, but also to safeguard Barbados’ reputa-
tion around the world as a well-regulated jurisdiction
for business,” Inniss explains.
The Ministry is also empowered to help increase the is-
land’s employment rate. “Our support of the manufac-
turing sector leads to job creation,” says Inniss. “The
more we market Barbados as a place for foreign com-
panies to do business, the more jobs we create. We
have offices in the UK, Canada, and the US to promote
Barbados. We also use social media and participate
in conferences and missions around the world. And at
home, we have regular engagement with the private
sector, in particular, so that they’re aware of what we
are doing. We also work closely with the private sec-
tor to help shape the policies so that it’s not a case
of government superimposing its ideas on others but
working in a collaborative manner.”
Another way that the Ministry helps the nation’s econ-
omy is by investing in local businesses, through grants
and loans, as well as various tax incentives. “We focus
on reducing the import rates of tax so that people who
wish to import items in the manufacturing sector can
find it less expensive to do business,” Inniss says. “And
we’ve invested in many businesses here to re-tool so
that they could increase their production. We’ve ex-
posed some of our manufacturers to the latest in tech-
nology. And we’re weeks away from rolling out a new
suite of incentives and policy guidelines for the small,
micro, and medium enterprise sectors in Barbados to
make them more competitive.”
Inniss says that one of the Ministry’s goals is to in-
crease the country’s export of goods by ten percent
this year. “And we are on target to achieve that,” he
