Doing business in Barbados has come under increased scrutiny in recent years as it becomes clearer that it can no longer be business as usual.
This realization is a result of both the prolonged global financial downturn and increased emphasis on the need to attract foreign investment.
The consensus seems to be that businesses can do a lot to increase facilitation.
In the November 21, 2011 BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY attorney-at-law Errol Niles said: “Barbados is far from the top of the list when selecting a business-friendly domicile to establish a business and the problem is partly due to bureaucratic inertia and a lack of coordinated and integrated technology within the public sector”.
However, he said the island can boast multiple advantages and unparalleled potential as a place where businesses could achieve global excellence, though it was nowhere near that goal.
“It is not to say there should not be some regulation and due diligence but there is sometimes some ethnocentric condescension when some people attempt to do business in Third World countries, believing that there should not be the slightest inconvenience or delay when attempting to set up shop.
“This seems particularly evident in the area of planning permission and registration of businesses.
“Beyond that, there is no doubt that over-regulation pushes up commercial expenses and prices higher,” he said.
Niles noted that the move by Government to streamline its tax and financial departments should help in improving business facilitation.
Moreover, different departments combined in single, conveniently located offices; income tax, employee and other enquiries can take place across a single desk, he said.
“Barbados needs to start a technological revolution across all sectors to enhance its reasonably favourable attitude to business facilitation.
“The issue might not be on the front burner but it is now in the firing line as the country faces serious economic difficulties.
“There is definitely room for improvement,” he noted.
Meanwhile, executive director of the Barbados International Business Association (BIBA), Henderson Holmes, said: “Any cursory survey of the way in which business is done in Barbados would provide clear evidence that business facilitation is not on the front burner among those with influence in either the public or private sectors.”
He said all Barbadians should recognize that encouraging greater efficiency and responsiveness, in both private and public sector agencies charged with facilitating the establishment and conduct of business, would redound to their benefit.
“From the perspective of foreign investors with alternative locations for their investments, the quality of our business facilitation determines our competitiveness vis-à-vis other jurisdictions.
“However, from the point of view of local businesspeople, it is a matter of whether we see it as encouraging or frustrating initiative and enterprise,” he said.
“We must never forget how easily this standard of living can be undermined if we do not, as a nation, make business facilitation a priority,” Holmes said.
Technology can help to make it easier to do business. However, it has been suggested that it is not fully utilized by local businesses.
Speaking during the launch of a technology assistance project for small and medium-sized enterprises, chief executive officer of the Barbados Small Business Association (SBA), Lynette Holder, said there was insufficient use of information and communication technology among SMEs.
“It is a known fact that despite we are relatively advanced in our use of technology, the truth is we use technology more so for social networking . . . dropping an email here and there, surfing the web and so on, but not enough for our business efficiency,” she said, noting that this was borne out in a survey of SBA members.
Citing the World Economic Forum’s 2010/2011 global competitiveness report, Holder noted that Barbados was ranked 43 out of 139 countries with a “technological readiness” ranking of 22.
However, the country was placed at number 52 for innovation and 59 for business sophistication.
“When we look at these indices [it] suggests to us that there is some work we have to do as it relates to our innovation and how sophisticated we are as firms,” she said in the March 5, 2012 BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY.
Meanwhile, Digicel’s corporate sales manager, Rudy Archer, noted that although business people were aware of technological solutions, many seemed reluctant to use them to improve their businesses.
“Barbadians are very well educated,” Archer said. “Persons in Barbados, I believe, get into business at a higher rate of understanding than most other business persons all over the world.
“The difference that we have here is that we’ve had some measure of resistance to acquire the technology and then there seems to be a little bit of a phobia about embracing the technology to go out there and improve the business and your business model.”
In the publication, telecoms policy specialist Glenda Medford, said enterprises with low levels of ICT skills were expected to become increasingly vulnerable to competitiveness from more ICT-savvy enterprises.
She urged businesspeople to take full advantage of social media and other forms of Information and Communication Technology in order to become more competitive and satisfy customers’ demands.
“Undoubtedly, ICT has broken down barriers of distance and time and created new opportunities for businesses, especially micro enterprises, to improve business operations and participate in the global economy,” she said.
“The reality was that yesterday’s consumers are quickly being replaced with a new generation of end users who are tech-savvy. These consumers are ready to do transactions online and engage in e-commerce with whoever is [so] inclined,” said Medford.
She said based on research, more than half the world’s population under age 30 was currently using social media. She said social media had created “a fundamental shift” in consumers’ behaviour yet many businesses still did not have a social media presence.
“Several issues have been raised in Barbados about providing a true e-commerce experience even though the legislative framework has been put in place over a decade ago. The reality is that we need to use the technology to offer our goods and services to those seven billion [people] online in this ritual e-market place.”
Acknowledging that there were various types of ICT mechanisms to be utilized, Medford highlighted areas such as tourism and the financial services sector where ICT could play a major role in promotion, marketing, data management, information sharing and building training partnerships.
“In the area of logistics, ICT can improve efficiency by reducing delivery times and coordinating the stock levels through improved monitoring of supply and demand, which in turn enhances customer service,” Medford suggested.
