September 2015 Issue Business View Caribbean

68 September 2015 - Business View Caribbean pand and build sustainable businesses. To keep the sector moving, the key ingredient is exposure, and this is facilitated through BMEX and our Buy Bajan cam- paign, which showcases the best of what we have to offer, bringing national, regional and international at- tention to manufacturing in Barbados, and the latter raises awareness of locally manufactured products in Barbados. “The average view of manufacturing tends to be very limited and at time erroneous. When some think of manufacturing they still think of dim and dusty opera- tions. Some of our manufacturers run fully automated state-of-the-art facilities. We are constantly increasing our standards and moving toward manufacturing ex- cellence. We are now 50 years strong and are getting stronger ever year. Manufacturing is here to stay. “Undoubtedly, there are a number of challenges which the sector faces. The largest to our mind is competi- tiveness. While the quality and craftsmanship of local manufacturing is undeniably first class, we are forced to compete against foreign goods, be it right here at home or abroad where the playing field is not level. We must compete with markets whose labor costs are much lower, who have cheaper access to energy and who benefit from greater economies of scale than we do. “Also key for us is training. We want to make sure manufacturers have the right tools and access to the necessary resources. That is the drive behind our col- laboration with the Cave Hill School of Business and other partners on various initiatives such as the Entre- preneurial Survival Series.” “Our manufacturers are also recognizing the need to be more creative, to innovate and adopt performance standards,” Nicholls said. “There are several manufac- turers in this country who are ISO certified, who have outstanding brands competing on the regional and in- ternational stage. But unfortunately so many people