THE PRIVATE sector is a critical partner with Government but it should not expect to run rampant only thinking of the profit margin and shareholder returns.
This was stated by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart as he delivered the feature address at the luncheon of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry at Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre yesterday.
“While the Government . . . understands the importance of not shackling the private sector, it remains . . . committed to keeping realistic regulations in place to protect the reputation of Barbados as a place in which clean and effective business can be conducted,” Stuart said.
It was the policy of Government to create the kind of environment in which genuine entrepreneurship could flourish and healthy productivity be achieved.
But Stuart also said if the private sector was not motivated or stimulated to embrace opportunities for innovation, “by which I mean not only doing new things but also doing old things in new and more efficient ways, the expectations of the society will be cheated of fulfilment.”
Stuart also rejected the theory that Barbados could be defined in purely economic terms.
He said Government could not sit idly by however, “in the face of pressing social needs, and wait on the private sector to discharge its remit if in a given set of circumstances, it is unable to do so”.
The Prime Minister continued: “In many cases over time, the Government has had to take the lead in the area of initiatives that would promote social and economic development and challenge the private sector to follow suit.
A good example of this is in the area of low income housing where demand continues to outstrip supply.”
He said Government had committed itself to doing whatever it could do to ensure that the private sector was “able without hassle, to continue to contribute meaningfully to the national development effort”.
The Prime Minister also said there were some tensions that existed between Government and the private sector, highlighting departments such as the Corporate Registry and Town and Country Planning.
“Criticism of the functioning of the Town and Country Planning Department is now something in the nature of an industry.
The processing of applications, it is claimed, takes much too long.
“. . . Not all the delays, however, have to do with the department itself but very often with other agencies of Government with which the department must necessarily consult . . . .”
