PRIME MINISTER MIA MOTTLEY (centre)
in discussion with president of the Barbados Employers’ Confederation, Yvonne Hall
(right),
and Minister of Labour Colin Jordan at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre yesterday. (Picture by Sandy Pitt.)
BARBADOS’ ECONOMY has stabilised, and now Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has her eyes set on transforming the country’s ability to perform.
Speaking at yesterday’s Barbados Employers’ Confederation (BEC) annual general meeting and luncheon, she said Cabinet would now focus on legislation aimed at decreasing levels of bureaucracy, and encouraging the efficient facilitation of business, which would combine to help produce growth.
Mottley told the gathering at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre that much had been done in the 11-and-a-half months since her administration took office with the economy on the verge of collapse, but much more was ahead.
“All who have watched from outside have been amazed at the extent to which the people of this country have pulled together to turn around our circumstances; effectively, to stop the rot,” she said.
The Prime Minister said her main missions last May were to stop that rot, and build a platform for transformation.
“We recognised there was a clear national consensus to save the dollar. It is clear we need to remind ourselves what is the national mission now. It was never our intention to stop the bleeding and remain in the same position. Today, our debt to GDP ratio, including the arrears of $1.9 billion, which we found only after assuming office, is down from 171 per cent to 125 per cent.
“All of our indices are now going in the right direction,” she said, while noting that more would come to light when an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team now in Barbados reviewing the performance of the economy in the first six months of 2019, gives its report card tomorrow.
She added that in some instances, some Barbadians did not see where they fitted, or the part they should play in helping the transformation required to put the island back on a path of prosperity.
“We know the bleeding has stopped, and that is critical, but we now have to do the operation that allows for a transformation of the country’s circumstances, the workers’ circumstances, and the owners of capital and employers’ circumstances.”
Mottley said she feared that the stabilisation of the economy through the agreement with the IMF and implementation of the BERT programme, had been “done so easily, and agreed to so quickly”, that she believed many did not understand “the complexity” or time necessary to achieve the objective.
“It’s not a one-year job. It’s not a two-year job. It might not even be a four-year job. It is in the defining of excellence in every single task in the country. The national mission now must be to be the best that we can be. It’s an inclusive mission.” (BA)
