Minister of Energy and Business Senator Lisa Cummins has called on the local and regional business community to commit to doubling intra-regional trade by 2035, warning that rising logistics costs and delays at ports are threatening economic growth across the Caribbean.
Speaking at the opening of the Barbados Manufacturers’ Association’s International Business Conference on Thursday, Cummins said the region is stuck in a logistics system built for others and overly reliant on external supply chains.
“We are simply, collectively, as a people, paying too much, waiting too long, and depending too heavily on everyone else,” she told attendees at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
She urged manufacturers and investors to invest in modernizing logistics infrastructure, reduce port clearance times, and diversify trade routes to include partners in Latin America and within the region.
Cummins also proposed that no Caribbean country should be more than three days away from essential food supplies and recommended a 25 per cent reduction in average shipping times to ease costs for both businesses and consumers.
“The future of the Caribbean will not be inherited. It must be built by us, for us,” she said.
The two-day conference, under the theme Our Global Village, has brought together manufacturers, exporters, investors, and regional officials to examine trade and logistics challenges and the future of industrial development in the Caribbean. (SM)
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