The high-tech security system at the Bridgetown Port is taking a big bite out of the profits of drug runners trying to sneak contraband into Barbados.

That is according to Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy, Kirk Humphrey, who today revealed that $1 million in illegal drugs had been seized by authorities at the port within the last month.

Speaking in Parliament on the facilitation of the International Maritime Traffic Bill, 2021, Humphrey said the port’s security system had been significantly bolstered.

In fact, he gave the assurance that by the end of the year the port would have the most sophisticated security system in the country.

“When we came into office there were 52 cameras in the Bridgetown Port and of those 52 cameras, 22 were not working. We currently now have 88 views in the Bridgetown Port. Phase 2, which is being implemented now, will see an additional 117 cameras being put in the Bridgetown Port. So we’re talking about where we had 30 cameras, we will have approximately 200 cameras in the Bridgetown Port. Tell me that we are not taking security seriously,” Humphrey said.

“With those 200 or more cameras in the Bridgetown Port, I can easily say to you that we will have probably the most advanced monitoring and tracking system utilizing artificial intelligence…”

The minister said using artificial intelligence, the security system was able to track movement in “the still of the night.” He said that had resulted in persons being brought before the law courts for engaging in illegal activities.

“Those men were brought before the court. We’re not playing. Our new $20 million scanner was able to pick up contraband in a tank, in a container that previously we could not have picked up. Of course, when we held the guy that was up to his dastardly behaviour we were able then to find some additional things, but we also found drugs attached to the hull of a ship.

“So that the port using its technology has been able to solve some of these things. By December 2021, the port will have the most advanced CCTV system in the entire country. It is the use of these technologies operated by the port which has been exposed to all kinds of specialized training that has resulted in the interdiction of about $1 million in contraband in the last month alone,” Humphrey said.

“That is because of the systems that we have put in place. We are taking this security thing extremely seriously. We have gone from having 30 functional cameras to having about 200 by the end of the year; from having a system that would be the joke of people to having the most sophisticated system, we believe, by the end of this year. We are not playing.”

Humphrey noted that there had also been other significant improvements at the Bridgetown Port.

According to him, the truck turnaround time at the facility had dropped from 70 minutes to 40 minutes while dwell times for containers had also been reduced from 12 days to six days and was actually headed towards four days before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

Additionally, Minister Humphrey said 90 per cent of the paper which was being used in the port had been eliminated.

He said the improvement and efficiencies had been noticed as the Bridgetown Port had been re-elected as the chair of the Technical Advisory Committee on Port Security under the OAS [Organisation of American States].

“In every manner and every regard we have not only treated seriously to security, we have also treated seriously to training and invariably and ultimately the efficiency,” Humphrey said. (randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)

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Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley today refused to attend a meeting hosted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over what he considered discourteous behaviour by the international financial agency towards him over the past three years.

During Parliament this morning, Speaker of the House Arthur Holder indicated the IMF would be holding a Zoom meeting in the afternoon for members of the Standing Finance Committee.

He informed them that the Standing Finance Committee comprises “all members” of the Chamber with the exception of the Speaker.

It was at this time Bishop Atherley rose to his feet and made his intentions clear.

He pointed out that prior to today’s meeting he had received no previous correspondence from the IMF inviting him to any of the previous meetings which it held with Government.

“The Opposition will not participate in this meeting with the IMF. I got notice of this yesterday morning, that is not my complaint. My complaint lies herein; the Government of Barbados has been in an arrangement with the IMF for the past three years plus months. Several engagements with IMF teams have taken place both physically and virtually. On no occasion up until this point, has the Leader of the Opposition been given the courtesy of a call, a letter, a briefing, a conversation, a dialogue, with any representative members of the IMF teams that have been to Barbados.

“I find this to be grossly out of order. I do not know how this particular initiative proposed for this afternoon has originated, if it comes under the bosom of the Government or the bosom of the IMF. It doesn’t matter. My beef today is not with the Government, let me make that clear. My beef today is with the IMF and I will not today participate and sit down in any meeting with them after three and a half years of not hearing one word,” Bishop Atherley maintained.

Leader of Government Business Santia Bradshaw then sought to clear the air.

She said the meeting had been arranged by the IMF and not Government and that it would not include any negotiation details between the two parties.

“I understand your sentiments but I would wish to state very clearly that the request is that of the IMF and is not the Government of Barbados. I know he’s not taking issue with the Government of Barbados but I am just indicating for clarity that yes, negotiations have been ongoing, discussions have been ongoing but this is very specific to Parliament and what we will be discussing in terms of the agenda,” Bradshaw said.

“We are looking at the role of Parliament in discussing and approving the preparation of the Budget, which committees or the plenary are involved. We will also be discussing the role in discussing the supplementary Budgets, the role in fiscal responsibility frameworks, the role of the Public Accounts Committee in scrutinizing reports of the Auditor General and challenging accounting officers and Government on the execution of their budgets as well. We are also looking at the level of discussion around the audit reports and following up on the Attorney General’s findings and recommendations.

“That is really essentially the summary of what is the proposed agenda. It is nothing that is untoward. It is nothing that is getting into the details of any negotiations by the wider Government, but really more procedural,” she added.

In response Atherley reiterated his position that he would not be attending the meeting.

(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)

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Attorney General Dale Marshall today laid the first piece of legislation to support Barbados’ move to a Republic on November 30.

“I have the tremendous honour to move the first reading of the Constitution Amendment Bill of 2021. This is the Bill that will take us to Republican status and represents the beginning of an important moment in our history,” Marshall said in a brief statement in Parliament this morning.

The AG also moved the first reading of the Prevention of Corruption Bill, 2021 and the Remediation Agreements Deferred Prosecutions Bill, 2021. (RB)

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Barbadian business needs to embrace more innovation, especially digital platforms, fix customer service, and delve more into renewable energy and agriculture in order to set the economy on a path to sustained growth, Edward Clarke, the outgoing head of the Barbados Private Sector Association has said.

Clarke, who has announced he is stepping down shortly as one of the business community’s leading spokesmen, said that the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown between March and June of 2020 and the month-long “national pause” in February were particularly destructive to smaller enterprises, which make up a considerable portion of the island’s private sector business community.

He said: “We have a large number of small businesses, well over 7,500, employing over 40,000 people, which represents over 30 per cent of our labour force, so when we start to lose these businesses it is worrying, it affects wholesale and retail businesses, as well as employees and families.”

The BPSA leader said that the greatest challenge facing the private sector currently is growth. He stressed that greater use of technology and younger entrepreneurs coming into the field with innovative ideas would be a step in the right direction for the island.

“Pre-COVID, there was talk about tourism investment in medical and educational tourism, but this has slowed down. I believe the time has come for us to use our education system better to generate the services required globally,” said Clarke.

“Look at the Welcome Stamp, for example. Sometimes we have two family members working digitally over here providing services offshore to their clients, we need to compete in that market, to become known in the global digital market space.

“Now it is not something you can easily get into because technology is not cheap, but I see a lot of new people coming into the business sector and they have to drive the changes with innovation and new ideas, and that will put us in a more competitive position internationally.”

But despite suggesting renewable energy as another area to be taken seriously, the private sector spokesman expressed doubt that Barbados would reach its target of 100 per cent renewable energy generation by 2030.

Clarke said: “We need to act much faster than we have been. A lot has to be done if we want to get these projects online. There is money available, we can save considerable foreign exchange for the country through this, and a land use policy where we may have to consider blending farmland with renewable energy plants, and indeed having farms use more renewable energy solutions, is one way in which we can do so.”

He also called on Government to develop a comprehensive agricultural policy covering all aspects of the industry.

“We have enough land here to feed the country, but the question is how we manage it,” Clarke declared. “Most successful farming countries are heavily subsidised, in Barbados, apart from sugar, there is not much of that.

“While recently the Minister of Agriculture has moved to control the prices of commodities, we cannot compete in the global market on price. We must do better regarding our food security, that is, produce more food here at a competitive price and have it available year round, and also ensure that we have enough to service the tourism industry.”

He added that while he did not advocate doing away with the sugar industry entirely, it could be used to produce molasses for rum and enough sugar for local consumption.

As co-chair of the committee overseeing the Barbados Economic Renewal and Transformation (BERT) programme which Barbados entered with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) some three years ago, Clarke said Barbados has been making steady progress.

“We have been meeting the targets so far, and government has been able to negotiate with the IMF for some ease in 2021, and you will see the benefit of this in a few years time,” said Clarke. (DH)

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Hundreds more Barbadians stand to benefit from increased job opportunities in the United Kingdom if Government is able to convert the pilot Farm Labour Programme into a permanent undertaking next year.

According to Christopher Griffith, the Barbados-born British-based independent consultant in charge of the UK Farm Labour Programme while 105 Barbadians found jobs during the six-month season that started in March, he expects those numbers and earnings to double next year.

“People sometimes look down on people who work in the fields, but these people are coming up here, once they have the right attitude and earning a minimum of 500 pounds a week easily. The average earning for people who had the manual labour background was an average of 300 pounds easily. If you look at the level of remittances, even if you take a minimum average of 200 pounds per week, they would have earned over a million dollars in Barbados currency which they send back to Barbados every month,” said Griffith, a consultant for Concordia, a 70-year-old charity which supplies workers for the programme.

He pointed out that the figures were conservative and do not factor in the multiplier effect once the money arrives in Barbados.

“When that money comes into Barbados, that money is going to expand because it is going to be used to pay expenses, rent, paying off debt, whatever. I know some people send back to their husbands and their wives. The contribution to the local economy is considerable. So that is another factor to bear in mind,” he told Barbados TODAY.

The consultant also revealed that a major shortage of workers in the UK has created tremendous job opportunities for Barbadians to fill in such areas outside of the fields as administration, driving and supervisory.

“We are going to plan for next year. The only thing we can see happening is that we can see the demand growing. The UK is finding itself at the moment in a situation because of Brexit, that the labour force that the Eastern European countries used to supply has vanished. So we are having shortages now across multiple sectors in the UK; transportation, drivers, hospitality, people working in hotels, care sector, things of this nature. The farming sector has not been exempted,” Griffith disclosed.

“I believe easily next year, with the right set of people who have a desire to work, we could double the number of Barbadians working on the Farm Labour Programme. Once we get the people who have a desire to work, acknowledge it is hard work, people who previously worked in manual labour, former Canadian Farm Labour workers, we can get these people in the UK,” he stated.

“I might seem overly optimistic, but I just think that some of the demands this year which were not satisfied, we can potentially double the programme next year easily,” Griffith suggested.

“Because Barbadians went into supervisory positions on the farms, driving roles on the farms, people have seen now that we can work,” he added.

In fact, he disclosed that other non-farm employment was in the process of being opened up on Jersey and Guernsey, two sister islands off the British mainland.

Griffith said considering that Barbadians are currently the only nationals from the English-speaking Caribbean legally allowed to work on the UK Farm Labour Programme, priority would be given to them when the new jobs in construction, home care and hospitality become available.

“For the first time my company has broken into Jersey. There are two islands in the channel; very upper end islands where a lot of people that are wealthy live. Because of that, they have had an issue with labour. So they have a shortage of construction workers, home care assistants and even hospitality workers,” he disclosed.

“I am working with an entity there now to bring in Barbadians to work in positions on those two islands,” Griffith announced.

He also revealed that next year, only persons with agricultural or field work backgrounds would be chosen to work on the farms.

“Even though during the interview some Barbadians said they were hard workers, what I realized was that when some of them came on the farm they could not cope with the manual labour involved. So what we are going to do is use previous Canadian Farm Labour Programme workers.

“The Canadian Farm Labour Programme is now dwindling and we will use people who have an agricultural background in Barbados and we will use people who come from a manual labour background. That was the key thing missing this year,” Griffith contended.

And Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations Colin Jordan said workers returning from the UK on the pilot programme are currently being debriefed by the Barbados Employment and Career Counselling Service so that a clear picture can be obtained of the working conditions in the UK.

“This information is critical in order to allow us to fix the challenges that exist. And we will fix those issues. The department has also been liaising with the Barbados High Commission in the UK to assist us with addressing some of the current complaints,” Minister Jordan told Barbados TODAY.

“The department is in the final stages of determining the structure of the programme and the people resources we will need on the ground as we seek to transition from the pilot programme to a permanent programme. This is likely to mean that we have a permanent presence similar to what we have in Canada and in the USA,” he said.

Jordan said the ministry was significantly strengthening its orientation process and programme.

“It is evident that we need to do a better job in that area. We will engage some resources from outside of the department to ensure that we prepare our workers in the best way possible for the work environment that they will be going to,” he stated.

The labour minister said the government was also determining the farms with which it will work.

“The Ministry of Labour and Social Partnership Relations have the legal authority to assist financially [Barbadians who can’t afford to buy plane tickets]. That obviously depends on available resources. We are considering providing some assistance to workers. Given the level of funding available, we are being careful in how we make assessments,” Jordan added.
(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)

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Taking a jab at the Government’s decision to allow cruise ships to berth offshore when the coronavirus pandemic broke out last year, Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley has called for the administration to fire those who gave the advice to allow the anchorage that led to extensive coral reef damage.

As Parliament moved to reintroduce the measure through passage of the Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic Bill, Bishop Atherley said there is documented evidence to show that the cruise ships’ presence has led to millions of dollars in damage to coral reefs and far exceeds any short-term financial gains from permitting berths for a nominal fee.

He said it is no secret that the reef damage will have a severe impact on livelihoods here, moving him to declare that whoever told Government it was okay to allow the ships to anchor on the west coast for an extended period “should be gone”.

The Opposition Leader said he wanted to believe that Government acted on the advice of the Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU) or another authority. He called on the actual advice that was given to Government to be made public.

Bishop Atherley said: “Now, what would have been the advice given to the Government? Because I am sure that this Government would not have taken actions in any ill-advised manner, and therefore could only have been acting upon the wise counsel of professional persons, experts in the field, people technically acclaimed and skilled and people who are reputed to have the level of experience, expertise and knowledge needed to advise Government on these sensitive issues.

“When I say somebody should be gone, I am not gunning for the Minister [of Maritime Affairs Kirk Humphrey]. I am not pointing at the minister. I believe that governments act in these matters on the best advice available to them.

“And therefore, if they were advised in such a manner as to have felt that they had a green light to go ahead, and take this policy decision, it has turned out thus that this significant loss has been incurred by this country, both with respect to present as well as potential economic gains not only in the immediate future but in the far distant future.”

Bishop Atherley based his comments on evidence contained in a report published in April by the University of the West Indies Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) at Cave Hill.

He cited the report, entitled Assessing Anchoring Impacts of Cruise Ships in Barbados During the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020, which suggested that while other countries turned them away, Government welcomed the cruise ships to the island to use the Bridgetown Port and allowed them to anchor along the South West, West Coast of the island in relatively shallow water, less than 50 metres, in depth, during the early COVID-19 period of 2020.

The report stated that the damage caused to the island’s coral reefs by the anchoring of the cruise ships is clearly extensive and could have been avoided, said the Opposition Leader. The document also states that there is no compelling reason why the ships should have been allowed to anchor, he added.

The report also highlighted that many of the ships anchored more than once, which led to 132 anchor drops in total with the majority taking place in March 2020, causing extensive damage to coral reefs.

Quoting from the document, Bishop Atherley said: “In the case of Barbados, degraded reefs will impact the local reef fishery which contributes to food security on the island and is important in supporting livelihoods, particularly during the flying fish offseason. Based on the official estimates of landings, the value of reef fishery in Barbados has been estimated at about 1.5 million Barbados dollars per year.”

He further went on to highlight the report’s contention that even with policies, legislation, institutional arrangements that acknowledge the value of coral reefs to Barbados and which provide for the management of these areas, significant coral reef damage has still been allowed to occur as a result of the unprecedented anchorage, indicating policy failure.

Bishop Atherley told the House of Assembly: “The question, therefore, is how do we account for this significant loss as is reflected in the findings of this incredible report from a credible source. That would be the question.

“I am sure Government would have been advised before it took a decision to allow for the activity that took place by this number of ships in this very wide sensitive area, an essential part of our marine environment, and a potential for economic gains for this country.”

(anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)

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Roughly half of businesses across the Caribbean have had to shut shop and lose tens of thousands of dollars in revenue as a result of the pandemic, a regional trade official said Tuesday as he called for businesses and governments to turn the crisis into opportunities.

Executive Director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency Deodat Maharaj said he believed the COVID-19 pandemic had provided the opportunity for businesses to tweak their operations and use more technology.

Addressing the Small Business Association (SBA) Small Business Week 2021 State of the Sector Conference Maharaj cited a survey carried out with the Caribbean Development Bank that revealed that about half of businesses across the region had to close their operations last year at the height of the pandemic.

“Almost 50 per cent of respondents reported having to close their physical operation and halt operation,” he said. “Around 40 per cent of respondents reported having to change the nature of their daily operation including the use of virtual platforms to facilitate remote work.”

He said that when asked how much the COVID-19 pandemic had affected their business on a scale of one to five, with one being least significant and five being most significant, “respondents recorded an impact level average four or five”.

The survey revealed that the areas of the business most affected by the pandemic were finance or cash flow (79 per cent), sales (73 per cent) and operations (54 per cent).

Maharaj said almost 40 per cent of the respondents reported that the pandemic resulted in costs of between $2,000 (US$1,000) and $20,000 (US$10,000) in revenue “in the early stages”. He further reported that a quarter of respondents reported a loss of over $120,000 (US$60,000).

Maharaj said: “Around 30 per cent of survey respondents reported that they had to retrench staff, and the [Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises] MSME sector as we know, account for over 50 per cent of employment in the Caribbean. This is the most worrying because people impacted the most are the most vulnerable in our society.

“Given the acute challenges we face across this beloved Caribbean of ours it is clear [that] for us to fast track recovery and build resilience the durability of MSMEs will surely be a deciding factor in the success of our recovery efforts.”

He said despite the challenges facing MSMEs, he believed there were a number of opportunities for MSME operators to restructure their operations, identify new markets and become more innovative.

“This crisis, we believe, also represents an opportunity to recalibrate our development agenda. We must look to new business processes, new technologies, new sectors, and new partnerships and we must re-imagine existing ones,” he said.

Pointing out that a lot of businesses were already embracing new technologies, the Caribbean Export executive director said this will be critical to the rebuilding firms.

“We need to establish organised and systematic approaches to help our MSMEs embrace technology as a friend and an asset,” he said.

SBA president Neil Corbin said the pandemic was not all bad given that it challenged businesses “to do some different things and to do some things differently”.

“Whereas we need to rebuild, this rebuilding must be better than before,” said Corbin.

Pointing to the research, the SBA leader said the fact that cash flow was so severely affected, it was evidence that “to date we have not addressed the perennial issue of providing the needed financing for the sector, and with every crisis we are reminded of how vulnerable MSMEs are to these existential threats”.

Corbin said: “The SBA’s own internal polling confirms that due to the impact of COVID-19, 82 per cent of members reported capital as their severe need in the next 12 months to recover and strengthen their operations.

“We therefore posit that this matter of adequate financing must be sufficiently addressed in order to facilitate a well resourced sector cable of contributing in a sustainable manner, to the economic recovery needed at this time.”

He added that “this global pandemic has presented us with the opportunity to rebuild in a more sustainable manner with a sector that is adequately resourced for growth”. (marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)

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Vice President of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Ryan Walters is calling on the Mia Mottley administration to consider expanding the Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation (BEST) programme to include other sectors.

Walters, who is the DLP spokesman on business and entrepreneurship, said many firms across a range of sectors continued to struggle due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These, he said, could benefit if Government expands the BEST programme by $200 million to support the non-tourism businesses in the area of new hires.

“I would recommend adding another $200 million onto that BEST progrmame and make it available to other sectors for new employment only, not to sustain what they currently have, but to employ new people. And if that is done, we can see people coming back to work, we can see people buying more, we can see consumption going up, we can see small businesses reopening, we can see income tax increasing, we can see VAT increasing,” said Walters.

Under the $300 million BEST scheme, which was implemented towards the end of September 2020, tourism-related entities are able to receive grant funding to re-hire a minimum of 60 per cent of their workforce on 80 per cent of their normal salary for at least one year.

They are also able to receive an investment of up to $2 million in the form of preference shares, to fund projects to upgrade and transform their facilities.

With a less than ideal take-up of the BEST scheme, government recently made some adjustments, making $30 million of the funds available as loans to tourism entities that do not qualify or wish to participate in the programme otherwise.

There is also a matching grant component of up to a maximum of $500,000 for an approved tourism enterprise.

Speaking on Sunday, during one of his Linking up with Ryan programme, Walters said he believed the best way to help stimulate economic activity now was to get more people back to work.

He explained that a lot of businesses were still struggling to keep their doors open and if the assistance was offered they would be in a better position to stay afloat and employ more people, creating a ripple effect in the economy.

What is more, Walters said, this would help generate revenue back to Government in the form of the various taxes.

“You have a situation where the Government has invested $300 million in the BEST programme, but what they have done is that they have given this money to the [tourism] related businesses only, but there has been fallout across all industries, across all sectors which seemingly are left to fend for themselves,” said Walters.

“So where unemployment is roughly around 18 per cent or so I think what the government needs to do is to expand that BEST programme into areas that are outside of the tourism sector . . . One of the biggest things that this will also do is this will actually help to recapitalize the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).

“The Government seems to have borrowed money or is borrowing money or getting money from somewhere to put into NIS, but if they create employment in a programme like this that affects lots of people in all sectors, you will actually be recapitalizing the NIS with about $50 million in one year if you consider the contributions from both the employer and the employee,” he explained.

At the end of August, Government announced that Cabinet had agreed to recapitalise the Unemployment Benefit Fund of the NIS to the tune of about $180 million over a three-year period.

With the arrival of the pandemic on Barbados’ shores in March 2020, the tourism industry was devastated, several businesses closed and unemployment skyrocketed.

Unemployment claims reaching close to 52,300 from over 32,000 people, resulting in the NIS paying out in excess of $155 million. The unemployment claims on average prior to 2020 were around 11,000. (MM)

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Acting Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw will host a press conference at 11:30 a.m. to address the concerns of leaders of opposition parties. Tune into Barbados Today’s Facebook page to watch live.

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Standards, partnerships, financial literacy and lower costs of doing business will be among the key elements for a resilient and resourceful recovery of the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) sector coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This assessment came from officials on Tuesday during the third State of the Conference, which forms part of Small Business Week 2021.

The September 19 – 25 week of activities is being held under the theme The Road to a Resilient and Resourceful Recovery.

Executive Director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency Deodat Maharaj said time was of the essence for work to be done to help the MSME sector rebuild. He stressed that the cost of doing business was one of the main hindrances due to the high cost of energy.

He said while improvement in standards was also necessary to the rebuilding and viability of businesses, those in the sector should also do more to take advantage of the various trade agreements between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and other regions.

“The reality for us in the Caribbean is that we can’t mass produce like China, we don’t have the scale to do so. We can’t mass produce like India, Ethiopia, Ghana or Nigeria. So for us it is about standards and specifically it is about taking advantage of the market access, and it is about premium product for a premium market at a premium price. I think in doing so we will create jobs and opportunities and earn precious foreign exchange,” said Maharaj.

According to him, each MSME operator should seek out partnerships to help grow and sustain their operation. Regional integration was “not an option but an imperative”, he added.

“Since the MSME sector forms the backbone of regional economies, the clear implication is that we really cannot fast-track post COVID-19 recovery and resilience and build back better without giving priority attention to this sector. The result if we don’t do this will be suboptimal or worse.

“Therefore, I strongly encourage policymakers, the large business enterprises, the banking sector and the development partners to give the highest priority to you in the MSME sector,” he told the Small Business Association (SBA) forum.

“Partnerships and working together are essential ingredients to help our MSMEs grow, create jobs and opportunities for Barbadians and for Caribbean people,” said Maharaj.

Meanwhile, Minister of Energy, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Kerrie Symmonds highlighted the importance of standards, saying he was disappointed that while the island had roughly 9,000 MSMEs, less than 100 of them had a working relationship with the Barbados National Standards Institution (BNSI).

In a speech reminiscent of that which he delivered at the 2020 conference, Symmonds again reported that the BNSI would soon be creating a national quality committee with “a developmental focus” to shape standards, technical rules and regulations across all sectors.

He also reiterated the need for national conversation on the ease of access to credit by the MSME sector, again insisting that Government will be establishing a collateral registry – a centralised database that records all the securities or collaterals of borrowers – allowing for the MSME sector to get financial assistance without requiring tangible assets, by registering on a web-based platform.

He also pointed to the importance of financial literacy and lower costs of doing business, saying these were important elements to the survival and sustainability of the MSME sector.

“I feel that if we are going to come out of the COVID environment with resilient entrepreneurs, then those persons in the entrepreneurial class or entering the entrepreneurial class must be, at all stages, supported in this journey in gaining and increasing their degree of financial knowledge,” said Symmonds.

He also reminded the audience that government would be introducing a new Metrology Act, that would replace the current Weights and Measures Act and make provision for accreditation and accurate measurement of all sectors. This, he said, should aid in increasing the capacity of firms to export.
(MM)

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Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Minister Kirk Humphrey has predicted a “radical turnaround” in the fortunes of the shipping industry as he introduced changes to the legislation governing the industry in the House of Assembly.

As lawmakers took up the Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic Bill, Humphrey contended that there were areas in shipping that had been neglected by previous administrations.

He told the House: “Shipping was tied to tourism under international transport and so a number of areas in shipping that should have been addressed were not addressed.

“What we saw was that the former government predominantly in the last few years and other governments as well did not pay attention to shipping in the way that we should have paid attention to shipping and as a consequence, we found ourselves behind in areas that we really should not now be behind in.

“So that is why over the next few weeks, months, years, you will see a radical turnaround in the legislation that governs our shipping industry, you will see Barbados taking a stance internationally in shipping and being recognized as a shipping nation of worth and value over the next few years.”

The minister explained that the importance of shipping was made all the more obvious by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Humphrey said: “COVID should tell us that we now really need to think about shipping because during the height of COVID and even now, but certainly at the beginning of COVID, the disturbance in shipping and supply chains meant some countries could not even get food or vaccines.

“During the height of COVID many of us could not get access to these things and the consequence of that is that we have seen in shipping an exponential increase in the cost of things. So if you do not understand shipping understand that the food you eat is going up because of issues in shipping.”

The minister said there was a need to correct the island’s shipping legislation and the ship registry, adding that the current legislation which guided domestic shipping also guided international shipping.

That legislation was now being separated, he said.

The blue economy minister suggested an upgraded ship registry could bring more revenue into Barbados.

“The ship registry currently has a few ships on it. It’s been doing very well to a certain extent but I feel like we need to do more, get more ships registered with Barbados because it has the potential to generate a significant amount of revenue for Barbados,” Humphrey said.

“We get the ship registry right we can generate so much more revenue for Barbados.”
(RB)

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A former minister of government is urging Government to wipe the slate of the most vulnerable who are currently indebted to the state-run, Student Revolving Loan Fund (SRLF).

In fact, Hamilton Lashley believes that a review committee should be established by the Ministry of Education to carry out means tests in order to re-evaluate and reassess those present and/or former students most in need of the goodwill.

In a recent interview with Barbados TODAY, Loans Manager Suzanne Griffith disclosed that due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the SRLF had embarked on a programme that would provide some ease to students who are struggling to repay their loans.

Though a noble gesture, Lashley, an ex-Minister of Social Transformation in a previous Barbados Labour Party (BLP) government, however contended that student loan forgiveness should be taken further. He suggested that these debtors ought to receive the similar treatment meted out to a number of businesses in 2019 when the Mia Mottley Government moved to write-off outstanding Value Added Tax (VAT) debts and waived their penalties and arrears.

“There are some people who of course can naturally repay because of their financial circumstances but for some reason or the other have not repaid. A means test should therefore be carried out. I am totally in agreement that in these harsh and difficult economic times that some consideration must be given to those who at this time, are having difficulty in surviving and meeting their payments because of these kinds of extenuating circumstances,” he said.

Lashley urged the SRLF to show some kindness, given the fact that most of the people who would have sought student loans would have done so under the belief that continuing their education was the only way that they could improve their lot.

He continued: “. . . . those that are in the lower socioeconomic bracket at that time, it seemed it was a good thing to do, because without an education the youths got stress. They felt it was a good investment but of course with this kind of global pandemic prevailing, then some consideration should be given to those persons and not to persecute and then prosecute them, but to work with them.

“If Student Revolving could have enough money that they could give to [a charity], I’m sure they could actually forgive people who used their initiative and saw education as a way to do better for themselves and their families.”

In the Fund’s most recent financial report the acting Administrative Manager Ambrose Johnson addressed the goal to reduce delinquent loans to less than 10 per cent by March 2022. At March 31, 2020 it stood at 17 per cent, an improvement from 27 per cent in recent years. Johnson also noted that in addition to local efforts, the SRLF had engaged international collection agencies to pursue borrowers living overseas. The cost of these efforts were not available. (KC)

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A new report has found that an estimated 41 million cases of dementia across the globe are undiagnosed.  This, combined with new treatment breakthroughs could result in an oncoming ‘tsunami of demand’ for diagnosis, which could overwhelm unprepared healthcare systems worldwide and Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), the global federation for over 100 Alzheimer’s and dementia associations across the world.

McGill University in Montreal, Canada was commissioned to deliver ADI’s annual World Alzheimer Report 2021 ‘Journey through the diagnosis of dementia’, which finds that 75 percent of 55 million people with dementia are not diagnosed worldwide. This figure is as high as 90 percent in lower-to-middle-income (LMIC) countries.

For the first time in decades, a new drug treatment for Alzheimer’s disease is on the market in the US, with the FDA conditionally approving aducanumab for use in early Alzheimer’s patient populations. Without a diagnosis many people living with dementia worldwide may not be able to access new treatment breakthroughs.

Furthermore, blood biomarker testing for dementia diagnosis is expected to be available in the coming years, making diagnosis more accurate than ever before. McGill University Professor Emeritus and World Alzheimer Report author Serge Gauthier says these new diagnostic tools will increase pressure on healthcare systems to provide diagnoses.

“The emergence of quicker, easier, cheaper, less invasive blood biomarker diagnostic tools will combine with emerging drug treatments and the global ageing population to create a tsunami of demand for diagnosis putting extreme pressure on healthcare systems,” says Professor Gauthier.

“Now that for the first time in decades, an Alzheimer’s drug treatment targeting a key protein involved in the disease process is available in the US and may soon be available in other parts of the world, people will not be able to access them without an accurate diagnosis.”According to the new World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics, dementia is the seventh leading cause of death among all diseases worldwide. Concerningly, stigma is still a major barrier to diagnosis, with the World Alzheimer Report survey revealing that one in three clinicians that nothing can be done, making diagnosis futile.

Paola Barbarino, ADI CEO, says that “lack of awareness and stigma within healthcare systems is hampering efforts to support people living with dementia”.

“This misinformation in our healthcare systems, along with a lack of trained specialists and readily available diagnosis tools have contributed to alarmingly low diagnosis rates,” says Barbarino. “We need healthcare systems across the globe to ensure that their national dementia plan includes specialist dementia training and adequate diagnostic equipment.”

“For over 20 years we have been calling on world government to implement national dementia plans, and frankly, progress has been too slow,” says Barbarino. “Now the tide has turned, and demand is set to skyrocket. Governments must respond now.”The WHO global action plan on dementia stipulated that half of countries should be diagnosing 50 percent of the expected number of those living with dementia, however ADI data suggests that the diagnosis rates in Member States could be as low as 25 percent in HICs and 10 percent in LIMCs.

Furthermore, 90 percent of clinicians identified additional delays and wait times for providing diagnosis due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Just one in three people with dementia and their caregivers have had in-person access to a clinician throughout the pandemic.

Three in four clinicians ranked the increasing number of people seeking a diagnosis, as global populations age, as a major challenge in the future, followed by people seeking diagnosis due to self-testing.

Barbarino says that this shows that it’s more important than ever for world governments to be planning appropriately for the oncoming dementia diagnosis demand. “People with dementia have a right to know their diagnosis, so they can know what to do next,” says Barbarino. This is a progressive disease, and figures are growing every year. There is a perfect storm gathering on the horizon and governments all over the world should get to grips with it.” (PR)

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by David Hinkson

The reparatory justice movement is going to become the next great political movement in the world.

Head of the Reparations Task Force and Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, made this declaration as he addressed a virtual meeting entitled “Reparations in the 21st Century – Slavery, Colonialism and the Meaning of Reparations” over the weekend.

In his address, Sir Hilary stated that from the very beginning there was opposition to the slave trade not only in the colonies in the West Indies and the Americas, but also on the coast of Africa itself and in the United Kingdom.

“From as early as the 17th century, there was a powerful movement in England against slavery, where people called on local sheriffs and mayors to stop it, and sent petitions to the royal family and the government, but these were brushed aside as those in authority convinced them that it was in the country’s best economic interest.”

He also noted that there were many battles between the enslaved and representatives from the shipping companies on the coast of Africa, and that uprisings broke out on twenty per cent of the slave ships that made their way across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to the Caribbean.

Sir Hilary continued: “It took us between 300 and 400 years of struggle to end this evil and when the emancipation legislation was passed, it was because they realised it was going to be a great war unless they brought an end to that system.

“But even after emancipation, the struggle went on because it took us all of the 20th century to convert emancipation into human and civil rights, the right to vote, democracy, and independence, but even so, Great Britain, France and the Netherlands still have colonies in the Caribbean.

“However, the 21st century must be the century where we call for justice against slavery and reparations. There must be a compensatory approach to assist these people who are still living in mass poverty, illiteracy, poor public health,
and whose development is being blocked because of the legacy of slavery.”

Meanwhile, at least one major city in the United Kingdom which was built primarily on profits generated by the Trans-Atlantic slave trade is making an effort to take the issue of reparations more seriously and in a tangible fashion.

Deputy Mayor of the city of Bristol, Asha Crowe, said: “Bristol is considered one of the most desirable places to live and work in the UK because of its diverse arts and cultural scene, but many of its residents from the African diaspora are disadvantaged in terms of education, employment opportunities, economic prosperity and health care, and this has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, long before the toppling of statues and the Black Lives Matter movement, we were debating the issue of reparations and atonement within Bristol since it was founded on the profits generated by the slave trade, and after years of debate, in March this year our City Council passed a reparations and atonement motion.”

She stated that “one of the first measures we will take is to launch an initiative known as Project Truth, which will set a path towards community family repairs, because given the psychology of the city African heritage communities are disenfranchised.

This project honours and redresses the silence of our ancestors and their contribution towards nation building both in the past and the present.”

Meanwhile, another speaker from the UK, Wavell Bennett, spoke about going after the commercial banks and other prominent business enterprises founded through profits generated by the slave trade.

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In celebration of the 43rd Anniversary of the Venezuelan Institute of Culture and Cooperation (IVCC), The Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Barbados recently celebrated its birthday with an online event via Zoom, in which the Order Francisco de Miranda in the First Class was awarded to Professor Melza Archibald for his contribution to the promotion of the Spanish language and cultural exchange between Venezuela and Barbados during 35 years at the IVCC.

The celebration was joined by Senator and Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Technology and Vocational Training, Dr. Rommel Springer, who was the keynote speaker, and Peggy Agard, Ministry of Education Officer in charge of Modern Languages.

After the singing of the national anthems of Venezuela and Barbados, Chargé d’Affaires, Alvaro Sanchez Cordero, gave the opening address, followed by IVCC students Deborah Marshall and Roger Lorde, who expressed their appreciation to Archibald for his long career in Spanish language teaching and congratulated him on receiving such an important award.

Senator Springer then expressed his joy at recognising the work of the IVCC and Professor Archibald for his 35 years of teaching Barbadians, highlighting the benefits of learning other languages, as the best way to learn about other cultures and interact with other people in the world.

Senator Rommel added that those students who have learned Spanish at the IVCC contribute to the country in many areas, and said that Barbados owes much to the IVCC for its educational contribution for 43 years, while acknowledging that despite the difficulties that Venezuela has experienced in recent years, it continues to use its own resources to continue teaching Spanish and Venezuelan culture to Barbadians.

In his speech, Chargé d’Affaires Sanchez Cordero highlighted the privilege of having Archibald as a teacher at the IVCC for 35 years, who also stands out for his professionalism, speaks five different languages and has extensive experience as a teacher in several schools in Barbados.

He also pointed out that Archibald lived in Venezuela for more than a decade, which gave him a better perspective of the culture, being also a music teacher of “Cuatro” (Venezuelan four-string guitar) at the IVCC and a founding member in Barbados of the Venezuelan music group Guataka.

Sánchez also expressed that he was truly honoured to hold this significant event to decorate Archibald with the Order Francisco de Miranda, First Class, an order named after one of that country’s most distinguished heroes, and concluded with the reading of a quote by Commander Hugo Chávez: “Culture is consciousness and knowledge. Culture tells us where we come from. It tells us what made us and who we are.”

Archibald briefly recounted how it all began, when in 1974 he was offered the opportunity to go to Venezuela where he learned Spanish, and when he returned to Barbados in 1985 the IVCC gave him the opportunity to become a teacher to spread Venezuelan culture and teach the Venezuelan language.

Peggy Agard expressed her satisfaction at celebrating together with the IVCC the achievement of Professor Archibald whom she met years ago when she herself was a Spanish teacher at the IVCC, where she also learned the language. She stated that it was a well-deserved award and that she was very proud of him.

Once the presentation of the award was over, Archibald gave a musical presentation along with Cuatro player Myrna Martineau, who played Barbadian and Venezuelan songs, such as: “Beautiful Barbados”, “Emmerton”, “El alma llanera” and “Venezuela”.

The event concluded with a well-deserved toast to a Barbadian who has dedicated 35 years of his life to teaching the Venezuelan language and culture. (PR)

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SOURCE: CMC- The Barbados government Wednesday insisting that “no taxpayers resources were expended” defended its decision to being part of an initiative involving at least two other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries seeking to acquire vaccines to curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in their respective countries.

Acting Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw in an address to the nation confirmed that the “regional company” at the centre of the initiative, “now finds itself having to pursue legal action in the United States for the non-delivery of COVID-19 vaccine which it would have paid for and subsequently tried to procure for Barbados from a legitimate manufacturer”.

“This my friends is a classic and yet very an unfortunate example of the very deleterious environment which currently exists across the world as small and vulnerable countries try to gain access to life-saving medication,” she said.

She reminded that in February this year, Barbados along with many other developing countries were being severely impacted by the coronavirus and were seeking to acquire vaccines to help deal with the situation.

“Several offers would have been made to the government of Barbados, by private entities, private companies, private individuals as well to assist in whatever way they could to source vaccines for Barbadians.

“The fact of the matter is at that time…we were in a position where the rest of the world and Barbados were trying frantically to get these much-needed vaccines into the population across the world and I think it is fair to say…your government did not sit on its laurels and wait for vaccines to come, but rather what we had to do is to reach out to not only these individuals and have them reach out to us, but we also had to take the opportunity to be aggressive in how we went after these vaccines.”
Bradshaw said that while much had been said over the past few days “middle men or what we call or what we would call the intervening companies that work on behalf of governments cannot actually purchase the vaccine nor do they personally receive the vaccine themselves”.

She said that there are several rules governing the purchase of vaccines from the international manufacturers and that this can only be done if the recipient government with whom the discussions are taking place approve of such purchases and that arrangements are also put in place “for the vaccines to be delivered directly to the relevant authorities in the country under the auspices of the Ministry of Health.

‘In other words, vaccines do not go directly to any private party, they came directly from the manufacturers to the Ministry of Health and Wellness,” she said, adding that following due diligence Barbados “agreed to and approved this exclusively private sector-led and funded initiative to source the doses of the vaccines for the citizens of Barbados.

“Yes, we agreed to facilitate one million vaccines because, for those who understand the process you would realise that it is not something you could just say we want 50, I want 100 or 2,000. The way the market is working is that you have at least to purchase a minimum of a million vaccines.

And so it was our understanding that other countries in the region were also grappling with how they get vaccines as well, we would have helped to facilitate other countries also being able to get some of the vaccines from the million that was being ordered by the local supplier”.

Bradshaw said Barbados’ quota was 300,000 and that the supplier was in discussions with other countries regarding the remaining 700,000 doses.

She insisted that at the time the deal was being brokered, Barbados and other countries were facing difficulties in acquiring the vaccines “and therefore having someone who could actually purchase these vaccines, in particular in these large quantities, with a view that we would enter into relationships across the region…was an attempt to get vaccines into the arms of as many people as possible”.

She said “unfortunately” having entered into a good-faith deal with an extra-regional entity, the regional company, Radical Investments Limited “has apparently been unable to get the said supplier to hold up his end of the arrangements and deliver the vaccines as promised”.

She said that while this is a private matter because the individual company is pursuing legal action against the company they had been attempting to source the vaccines, she wanted to make it “abundantly clear that no taxpayers resources have actually been expended and directly given to the company for the particular sourcing of these vaccines.

“This is however a most unfortunate situation and one that highlights the wild, wild, west environment which the prime minister has spoken about on many occasions that currently obtains on the COVID market.

“Radical Investments did not receive a single cent from us and therefore not expecting a refund from the Barbados government. The clear understanding at all times is that once the items were sources and they arrived in Barbados that the appropriate payments would be made to the company,” the acting Prime Minister said.

Bradshaw said she was reiterating calls made by Barbados for the international community, in particular, countries where the vaccines are being manufactured “to work with small countries in order to open up the market for fair and transparent trading” as it relates to acquiring the COVID vaccines.

“Sadly this call has fallen on deaf ears and as we have seen in recent weeks, much to the detriment of the region,” she added.
Meanwhile, former St. Lucia prime minister, Allen Chastanet has confirmed that his administration had hired Radical Investments, operated by a prominent local developer Mark Maloney, to procure the AstraZeneca vaccine as part of the regional bulk-purchasing arrangement between the Barbados, St Lucia and Bahamas governments.

The arrangement is now the subject of a suit filed recently in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida by Radical Investments against Good Vibrations Entertainment LLC, the purported supplier of the vaccines and a number of other businesses and individuals involved in the attempt to purchase the vaccines.

Chastanet, whose government lost the July 26 general elections, told the Barbados-based online publication, Barbados TODAY that his administration had agreed to be part of the initiative because Radical Investments was a reputable business.
“We worked through Radical. It was on the basis of the reputation of Radical and the fact that three countries were involved, Barbados, The Bahamas and St Lucia,” Chastanet said from Canada.

“It was very difficult. They had many different people approaching us and due diligence was done. None of us could do it. Similar deals were being put together with the African groups. So many different groups that had come together. It took us a long time before we settled on a person. So getting a company involved with reputable people, that was a key factor and the fact that other countries in the region were also involved,” Chastanet told Barbados TODAY.

He said that up to the time of leaving office, the delivery of the vaccines was still pending, saying “I know we waited a very long time. Every week was another situation, and we just kept holding. Sadly in our case, we actually paid some money”.

In a letter dated April 20, 2021 and signed by the Director of Finance in St Lucia, the government approved EC$7.3 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) as its contribution to buy 100,000 doses of the vaccine.
In its claim in the US court, Radical Investments Limited said it had been deceived and lured into an elaborate scam to advance the sum of US$10.2 million for one million non-existent doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The claim alleges that on or around late March or early April, 2021, Maloney, the principal of Radical Investments, was introduced by a Trinidadian national who resides in the United States and works in the PPE sector to the principal of Good Vibrations.

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Barbados Defence Force (BDF) Private Raheem Reeves has been found guilty on the final day of his court martial at the Barbados Defence Force’s St Ann’s Fort headquarters.

He was accused of leaving his duty station at St Ann’s Fort while being part of a COVID-19 Sanitization Unit without reasonable excuse on March 14, 2021.

However, his attorney-at-law Queen’s Counsel Michael Lashley has served notice that he intends to take the matter to the Court of Appeal.

(more details as they come to hand)

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