Having listened assiduously to a full-bodied speech delivered two Sundays ago by the Right Honourable Owen Arthur to mark the 47th anniversary of Barbados’ independence and trace the strategic options available to the present government going forward, I became even more cognizant of the escalating financial and economic challenges facing our beautiful country in 2014 and beyond.
No longer can Barbadians believe that the rising cost of living, poor and deteriorating economic conditions, and ever-increasing level of unemployment are the most critical problems to be confronted in the not too distant future.
To put it bluntly, saving the value of the local currency is now the most pressing monetary factor to be battled in 2014 and the immediate years ahead. Does our government have the conviction to win that fight?
I have to be forthcoming in my response to that million dollar question. For way too long our government has failed to send instantly recognizable signals to us as a people that it is in partial much less complete command of the financial and economic army of Barbados.
As an obvious example, the hasty switch from a stimulus package of approximately $600 million to an austerity programme to the tune of $400 million in less than six months is impregnable evidence that those charged with the responsibility of leading Barbados out of its contemporary state of depression are thoroughly naive when it comes to figuring out the precise strategy to pursue to emerge victorious in this financial and economic war against which we all have been struggling for more than five years.
Contrast the Barbadian experience to what is now going on in neighbouring Grenada.
By virtue of its actions in recent weeks – the holding of widespread public consultations with the trade unions, churches, and members of other civil societies on the soon to be implemented home-grown structural adjustment programme – the Dr Keith Mitchell-led administration must have unequivocally conceded that the reconfiguration of the socioeconomic landscape of Grenada’s small, open and highly vulnerable economy requires a robust partnership among the key players in the wider society.
And this extensive partnership is critical because it is clear that swift changes in the global financial and economic setting will absolutely present major challenges to Grenada given the characteristics of the local economy. In response, his government has to focus all of its creative energy and talent to the construction of a macro-economic atmosphere that facilitates fiscal prudence, reflects serious efforts at debt reduction, and lays the foundation for employment generation within the private sector.
On the basis, therefore, of what has been happening in recent years in relation to the financial and economic performance of the Barbadian economy and drawing on the Grenadian example, it seems logical to me that the present government has to fully surrender to the fact that the most feasible option going forward to tackle the country’s economic woes in 2014 and beyond is one based on shrewd national consultations involving as wide a cross-section of social partners as possible. The far-between consultations that take place within the context of our existing social partnership cannot and clearly has not cut it.
Incidentally, this means that the government must advocate for a vintage of the economic advisory council and a “franchise technical team”. Only then will real hope blossom in terms of authentic performances of Barbados’ economy in 2014 and the ensuing years.