A lack of critical data has been identified as one of the deficiencies within the international business sector here.
But Barbados International Business Association (BIBA) president Ryle Weekes promised that could soon be a thing of the past.
He told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY the association was working in collaboration with Invest Barbados in an effort to collect more statistics on the sector so its true contribution to the economy could be measured.
It is estimated that the sector contributed about $800 million to the island’s GDP and employed around 4 200 people here last year.
“Statistics has been a struggle for us. We are now working on a programme with Invest Barbados to get better statistics because we don’t have good enough statistics to tell in a very timely manner what is going on,” Weekes confirmed.
Besides needing information to better determine the sector’s contribution, Weekes said increased global pressures and increased competition called for more information gathering on the sector.
The data collection started several months ago and was now at “an advanced stage”.
“I wouldn’t be able to say if it was a week or two away but it is well advanced and the members are participating in this so BIBA members have been providing information as well. I am hoping that Invest Barbados can have it completed relatively soon,” said Weekes.
One of the difficulties, Weekes said, was trying to get timely information from all member firms, other international business partners, the Central Bank of Barbados and the Inland Revenue Department.
“One of the challenges has been just being able to get a real commitment to getting information that is there. When you think about it everyone that works in international business has to pay taxes so that information is there. The question is if it is coded properly so you can harvest that information effectively and efficiently,” he said.
The association was seeking to collect information on corporate taxes, PAYEs, the number of people employed in the sector and the average salary they make, among other things.
“It would be refreshing some of the information we have had before. Really we would love to be able to provide information too, for example, about how many hotel nights these people use,” said Weekes.
He said: “International business is often mentioned as being second to tourism in terms of foreign exchange and overall GDP, and while that may very well be the case, [we are in need] of information and data that really tells us how much of international business is not being counted because it is [considered] tourism.
