Caribbean Export OUTLOOK 3rd Edition

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Pulse of the Caribbean

N ever before in the island’s history has a political party achieved what the Barbados Labour Party did on May 25, 2018. Led by then opposition leader Mia Amor Mottley, the party swept all 30 seats in the House of Assembly during the general elections, making her the island’s first female prime minister. The mandate handed down by the public was unmistakable. We want to take Barbados in a different direction; and we want your team to lead us. It’s a message the Honourable Prime Minister heard loud and clear, one that has informed every decision made since she took office, and one that sits at the foundation of the revolutionary vision she has for Barbados, and by extension, the Region. Defining that vision, her hopes, and dreams, for the 166 square miles she calls home is a big ask, she told Caribbean Export; it could take all day. But, if she had to sum it up in one word, that word would be “excellence”. “Barbados has now to transition to be a centre where people can aspire to be the best that they can be, not just talking the talk, but walking the walk,” she said. “We need to be a country that provides globally competitive services.” But producing goods and services that are on par with international standards is just a start, and in the PM’s mind, it’s the bare minimum. Instead, she believes Barbados must be an influencer, taking pride of place with nations leading the charge from matters related to climate change all the way to world peace. It may seem an insurmountable challenge for a small island state, where size constrains development opportunities, but, she stressed, one’s size does not constrain one’s ability to produce ideas. The key sectors she believes will be transformative for the island include International Business and Financial Services, Renewable Energy, Intellectual Property Development, Research and the Creative Economy, all of which allow Barbadians to leverage their strengths within a critical sector, in which they have excelled for over a century – education. “Barbados had 200 primary schools in the year 1900, and six secondary schools on 166 square miles, so education has been central to our DNA,” Prime Minister Mottley said. “Similarly, when you look at public health, Barbados has produced more public health experts than many of our counterparts, and has influenced the standards of public health in the 20th century. Those things have been central to who we are,” she said. “We need now to leverage them in a different way, with the non-traditional services.” And as the island seeks to change course in pursuit of economic growth and development, tackling global trends that impact economic attainment will be critical. Some strategic blockages, like the European Union (EU) blacklisting, December 2017, and overregulation, which constitutes non-tariff barriers to growth, will require