Peter Boos, a transplanted Trinidadian, for decades has made Barbados his home. He wears his love for his adopted homeland on his sleeve. He recently committed his considerable intellect, expertise and energy to make this fair land the world entrepreneurial hub by 2020.
This grand idea of creating a welcoming and enabling business environment through the Barbados Entrepreneurial Foundation is a commendable ambition. I wish the retired chairman emeritus of a leading chartered accountant firm and fellow enthusiastic visionaries the best of luck.
As regular readers know, much of what appears in this space is grounded in hard, empirical evidence. With that in mind, I make bold to say that the foundation will need more than a large dollop of luck to reach its goals.
Before leaving Barbados early in 1995, the newly minted Heads of Mission were admonished by the new Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs to hit the ground running, sparing no effort in promoting Barbados as a business destination.
I spent eight years proselytizing in Britain and four other countries to which I held concurrent accreditations, spreading the message that Barbados is not just a wonderful place for a memorable holiday, but also a good place to do business.Time and again a businessman visited and returned frustrated, hamstrung by reams of red tape brought to the table by bureaucratic gravediggers. Time and again the cynical description of a diplomat as “a man sent abroad to lie on behalf of his country” haunted me.
Mine was not a lone voice crying in the wilderness of despair. Other heads shared the same complaint. Prime Minister Owen Arthur promised a “one-stop shop” pulling together under one roof the myriad strings essential to get a business venture off the ground. That shop never opened.
When the Office of Public Sector Reform emerged, we thought things would get better. A senior official disabused us saying it was only a slogan without operational impact. Reform was a palliative. Barbados needed the root and branch treatment of a bureaucratic revolution.
Two recent experiences coming to my attention led me to conclude that nothing has changed. A young professional with experience in two leading offshore jurisdictions hung up her shingle here confident of drawing on personal contacts made at graduate school and now well placed internationally, buttressed by professional contacts cultivated elsewhere.
A top European company with an impressive global reputation using cutting edge technology to deliver its product, retained her to prepare a briefing paper. It was impressed by the ready-made niche market and excited by the opportunity to set up headquarters in Barbados, expanding into the Eastern Caribbean.
This project would bring in foreign exchange to build and operate a factory, buy local materials and generate numerous jobs. It would also impact significantly on the documented 30 000 solutions needed to satisfy the national shortage of a basic creature comfort. Delivery would be quick, the product aesthetically pleasing and affordable.
After initial contact was established at the official level, repeated calls were not returned. Frustration set in as the investors were anxious to visit the island, meet with officials and outline plans. Fortuitously, a chance meeting with the head honcho rekindled hope. Apologizing for the break in communication, he instructed a bureaucrat to arrange a meeting on a given date.
That was communicated to the European company and arrangements made to fly out. Weeks passed without any further contact. A plethora of telephone calls met with excuses that the bureaucrat was at lunch, in a meeting or ill. A hand-delivered letter, text message and email to the head honcho went unanswered.
When the Europeans failed to get official confirmation of a meeting, they concluded that Barbados was uninterested and asked their representative to look elsewhere. Shattered by the indifference, discourtesy and lost opportunity, a single telephone call secured a high-level meeting in another island after just 72 hours, making our loss their gain.
Disappointment morphed into horror when told that with politics in command and a name like hers, there will always be roadblocks. Fact is, she has as much interest in politics as in the mating habits of the blue arsed fly.
In another case, representatives flew from Australia and made an impressive Powerpoint presentation which was well received on a project very much in the national interest with a beneficial environmental impact. Months later, there has been no response from officialdom, numerous telephone calls and emails remaining unanswered. Aspects of this project will be kept under scrupulous scrutiny.
Not returning phone calls, answering emails or text messages is simply bad manners. There is no excuse for this primitivism in a country aspiring to First World status and the global entrepreneurial hub by 2020. When businessmen from thousands of miles away are denied opportunities to bring foreign exchange, state-of-the-art techniques, jobs and solutions to national problems, Barbados’ reputation as a place to do business suffers irreparable damage.
In an apocalyptic reflection, one friend speculated that the sign hanging outside Dante’s Inferno may be adapted and placed at Grantley Adams Airport to read: All Ye Entering Here To Do Business, Abandon Hope.
Against that background, I wish Peter Boos and his team well and trust that the foundation will be a triumph of experience over hope.
Peter Simmons, a social scientist, is a former diplomat.
