A RESURGENCE in the tourism, construction and international business sectors has been predicted.
And despite “a very difficult” 2010 for many industries, Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) president Andy Armstrong said this year was expected to be much better though not extraordinary.
“It is not going to be a fantastic year but we believe there will be some improvement on 2010, particularly tourism and construction, and we are hopeful that the offshore sector will start to recover during [this] year as well.
“Agriculture has a lot of challenges and . . . the authorities need to send a stronger signal to protect local farmers from theft,” he said.
Armstrong, managing director of distribution company Armstrong Agencies, said the make or break issue for Barbados depended on its trading partners.
“The United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, if those economies have a better year, then we would expect to see certainly more tourists coming to Barbados and spending more money than they have been doing recently. It is then that we would see the effects within our market.
“A lot of that is driven by the second-home market where foreigners come to buy second homes in Barbados,” said Armstrong.
He said the fact that Barbados was “largely corruption-free” compared
to other countries was one factor that continued to work for the island.
“We have been able to keep crime largely under control and we have been able to, by and large, protect employment, so we have not seen very high levels of unemployment.
That has kept the social stability in Barbados.
