FORGET THE POLITICS and alter Barbados’ economic model to adapt to the mounting problems that threaten Barbadians’ standard of living.
Outspoken chief executive officer of the Barbados Small Business Association, Lynette Holder, made this suggestion as she stressed that the country’s economic problems were of grave national concern and therefore beyond politics and political parties.
“It is unfortunate that for the last three, four years as we saw our state of affairs deteriorating that the necessary changes were not made but I understand.
“I understand that in a small society . . . we have a situation where [members of] our political class, for fear of losing in an electoral process, sometimes are not as candid as they need to be with the electorate. This is a reality of both major political parties in the country,” she said on Friday during a telephone interview with BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY.
Holder said there was a sense of frustration among the private sector.
“It isn’t that there have not been persons in the society talking . . . and raising a flag about the issues, people who are not politically partisan but people who have a genuine interest in growth and development of the country.
“It is unfortunate in this small environment that we’re in that you tend to define people by some sort of political reality and are then not able to receive the pearls of wisdom that they’re able to develop . . . ,” she said.
The small business advocate said privatization may need to be a part of the island’s new economic model since the state was asset-rich but cash-poor.
She said those who had avoided this issue in the past for “political gain” may now need to put it on the table as a viable solution to the country’s problems.
“It does not mean that the average Barbadian will be disenfranchised. Actually, I think we can enfranchise our people through these kinds of models and empower them to manage and own some of the assets that are currently owned by the state,” she said.
Holder said Barbados’ economy had reached the tipping point.
“We have examples in the region of economies that at one point in time were buoyant . . . but because of poor economic policies . . . they lost the high standard of living that their citizens enjoyed at one point in time,” she said.
The CEO said Barbados enviable standard of living was at stake.
“Barbados has for years, for decades been a country, as Kofi Annan said, that punched above its weight to the point where many in the Caribbean looked to us for leadership . . . where investors flocked here to bring much needed foreign exchange . . . .
“I am sorry to say that a lot of that is now deteriorating,” she said.
