THE BARBADOS CHAMBER of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) has urged Government to take urgent action to speed up the Barbados Competitiveness Progamme.
President Lalu Vaswani said yesterday that the $20 million project, which was launched in May 2011 by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs in association with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), was vital to improving national competitiveness through improved business facilitation.
The four-year initiative is expected to address several issues relating to taxes and incentives; business transactions and developments across various sectors; trade and logistics and public and private sector relations, among others.
However, speaking during the BCCI’s monthly business luncheon at Hilton Barbados, Vaswani said although the Chamber had noted Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler’s public support for the programme, it had urged for urgent attention to resolve delays experienced thus far.
“In one case cited, a report on one component of the Competitiveness Programme has been outstanding since May 2011.
