New International Business Needed, Says Barbados PM

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley (centre); Minister of International Business and Industry, Ronald Toppin; Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (right of PM), Senator Dr. Jerome Walcott; Professor Avinash Persaud and Director of Finance and Economic Affairs, Ian Carrington, listening to the presentation by the Barbados International Business Association’s Task Force. (C. Pitt/BGIS)

Barbados needs to pick up new business in the area of international business and financial services, Prime Minister Mia Mottley said after the Barbados International Business Association’s (BIBA) Task Force, led by Chairman Ben Arrindell, presented a report to the government.

Mottley expressed the view that many opportunities were available to Barbados but enough people had to be put in place to pursue them “in a credible and structured way”.

She stressed that if this was done, additional business would be brought to the country.

The prime minister thanked the BIBA officials who participated in the process of preparing the report, a copy of which she received in July. She gave the assurance that Barbados would be marketed aggressively and proffered the view that there had to be a different approach to the diversification of marketing, both in terms of product and countries.