Business View Caribbean - November 2016 33
asserts. “We’ve been able to take some of our manu-
facturers into new, emerging markets, such as Cuba
and Guyana, and some islands in the Caribbean.”
Inniss says that moving forward, Barbados confronts
some major challenges, both exogenous and endog-
enous. “On the exogenous side, we have uncertainty
in the global market,” he states. “Because Barbados
is a small, open economy, we are highly susceptible to
whatever is happening around the world. So when oil
prices go up, we feel immense pressure on our econ-
omy, as well, because of our dependency on imported
oil. When there is a dampening in the economy, say of
the UK, our tourism sector faces a challenge because
most of our tourists come from the UK. On the interna-
tional business side, a deep and prolonged economic
recession affects the bottom line of businesses and
that, by extension, affects the number of entities that
would see Barbados as a jurisdiction of choice for
global expansion. Those are things that we really have
little control over.
“On the endogenous side - the internal side - our chal-
lenge remains in terms of our market size,” he con-
tinues. “Domestically, there are only 300,000 people,
and there’s a limit to what we can produce for that
market. We also have to drive up efficiencies in the
public sector, the government side, so that those who
interact with government can do so in a more timely
and less costly manner - and that can have a real im-
pact on businesses. We also are challenged in terms
of the speed we roll out new policies and new initia-
tives, and last, but not least, is the issue of financing:
sustainable and adequate financing for private enter-
prise to grow out. Those are the major external and
internal challenges we face.”
Meanwhile, Minister Inniss stresses the advantages of
his country, especially as a place where overseas com-
panies can invest and prosper. “Barbados is open for
business,” he declares. “Barbados is very much recep-
tive to foreign, direct investment. We are an outward-
looking country; we have highly-trained, quality work-
ers and highly-educated people. There’s an excellent
quality of life in the country and a pretty good flair of
entrepreneurship. And, of course,” he adds, “a very
stable democracy.”
