Barbados can boast of having the regulatory and physical infrastructure to facilitate business development through the trading of local and regional stocks despite its small economy.
And according to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Maxine McClean, many of the companies listed on the Barbados Stock Exchange had been able to expand and diversify their capital and ownership bases as a result of going public.
“We are a small economy which traditionally relied heavily on foreign direct investment. Thus, there is need to create an indigenous entrepreneurial class supported by local investors,” she said.
McClean, however, noted that some companies had been reluctant to pursue public investment and the population must be more widely involved.
The senator was delivering opening remarks at the Barbados Stock Exchange’s 25th anniversary lecture and cocktail reception, at Frank Collymore Hall last Tuesday.
She added that while the junior market has had limited success to date, it was one way for small and medium-sized enterprises to capitalize.
Earlier, BSE chairman Dr Grenville Phillips noted that the local exchange was at the early stage of examining “the feasibility of streamlining the requirements for the listing of companies on the junior market”.
He also suggested promoting properly structured investment clubs at secondary schools and similar groupings to increase awareness on equity investment in Barbados, and would wish to engage the brokerage community in that venture.
