Barbados brand ‘good for business’

by Heather-Lynn Evanson BARBADOS as a business destination must set itself apart from other countries if it wants  a share of dwindling worldwide investment capital.And that was why, said Acting Prime Minister and Attorney General Freundel Stuart, the island had established entities like  Invest Barbados.“I can assure you that it will not be business as usual. Our future as a successful jurisdiction demands consistency, creativity, innovation, responsiveness, flexibility and excellence in service delivered,”  he said. The Acting Prime Minister was speaking at the opening ceremony of Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Caribbean 2010 conference at Hilton Barbados yesterday.He told delegates drawn  from the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States that brand differentiation would play a pivotal role in the island’s future development thrust.“Unwarranted attacks from several quarters, notably from G20 leaders, on international financial centres underscore the need  for differentiation,” Stuart said.“Certainly, in an environment where globalisation continues its forward march and competition for finite and decelerating investment flows intensifies, countries  like ours will need to accentuate  our more unique and distinctive features,”  he said.Stuart further told the participants that one of the island’s major features was its expanding double taxation treaty network  that includes 29 countries  with 14 more pending.He also pointed to the island’s social, economic and political stability, its prudent fiscal management and world-class infrastructure as hallmarks of the island’s brand.“The endorsement of Barbados as a jurisdiction that has substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard by the OECD [the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] in its original and subsequent reports is testimony to the quality of the Barbados brand for international business,” he added.“All this suggests there is a unique space for Barbados in the global landscape,” the Acting Prime Minister said.He further revealed that  the island was also looking to strengthen its foothold in the international markets by selectively entering certain areas like hedge funds management and private trust companies.He added that the requisite legislative framework would  also be reviewed and updated,  while investment agencies like Invest Barbados and other  stakeholders were working  “with a sense of urgency” to accelerate the “through-put”  and implementation of new products to improve regulatory and compliant standards.