The development of this country as an international financial centre carried through during the first Tom Adams administration in the 1970s and was part of a major restructuring of a critical area of the Barbados economy. That sector was important then and it is important now!
By the early ’70s sugar had lost its place as our major foreign exchange earner. In any event the labour force which would once have been attracted, perhaps out of sheer necessity, to menial jobs on the plantation had escaped the back-breaking toil of the cane fields through upward social mobility; and their newly developed intellectual skills demanded more congenial employment.
The sector fitted neatly with tourism since the more people heard about the island, the better for its name recognition as a possible vacation spot.
The necessity to hold the annual general meetings of offshore companies registered here meant that by attracting new international business companies and offshore banks, we were, so to speak, killing two birds with a single stone.
We were enhancing tourism and building a new industry; and how successful we have been can be gauged from the well paying jobs created by the sector and its contribution of foreign reserves paid through taxes raised on the profits of these companies.
The development of the sector is common policy between the two major political parties and criticism coming from either side of the political fence is usually constructive. It is in this vein that we approach the speech of former Prime Minister Owen Arthur during the recent debate on the Estimates.
He reminds us, for example, that Democratic Labour Party administrations continue to split the responsibility for the offshore sector between two ministries and he thinks that this split may mean a slower and less coordinated approach to a fast-moving service industry in which proactive response to the specific needs of the market place must be the order of the day. As Prime Minister he configured all international business in a single ministry.
Of course, Mr Arthur is well aware of the difficulties which any administration faces in promoting the sector and he will therefore be bound to recognize that no matter how vigilant the Government may be, there are external forces which will mitigate against any governmental moves.
He faced some of those in 2001 when the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development almost destroyed our sector by moving the goal posts on what was regarded as “clean and transparent” offshore jurisdictions.
He had to lead an international fight to protect our national well-being and the country stands to benefit from his personal insights and constructive criticism in this challenging area. His speech and his presence added much to the debate.
As he pointed out, too, we might have lost the unique niche which gave us a major advantage with the Canadian market; but this country has much more to offer the investor than some of our competitors. Our political stability, our well developed infrastructure, our highly educated workforce are not assets to be sneezed at, and we must promote a holistic package.
Yet, whatever we do, we have to ensure that in addition to being a warm and friendly people, we rapidly improve our delivery of service; that our Government departments recognize the need for real time efficiency in dealing with local and offshore businesses and that we do our best to reduce the level of crime in our country. The offshore sector, like tourism, is our business too.
