Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kerrie Symmonds has warned that business standards in all sectors in Barbados are showing signs of decline.
Leading off debate on the Copyright Bill, 2025, in the House of Assembly recently, he said “standards of business in Barbados are not rising, they are in fact in danger of falling”. He also said an element of complacency was “creeping into the way in which people are doing business in this country”.
The falling standards, he noted, were particularly noticeable in the public transportation sector, as evidenced in the ZR vehicular accident on Monday in which several schoolchildren were injured.
“We have to look at Barbados in a holistic way and see whether or not we are being true to ourselves in building out what I would want to call a standards-driven economy.”
In the context of the legislation before the House, the Senior Minister acknowledged that the island’s creative sector deserved to be recognised and protected. He said there was need for a broader conversation on intellectual property, considering the role it plays, especially copyright, in the context of entrepreneurial activity.
“I do not see the micro practitioner, irrespective of whether he is to be found down by the Bridgetown Harbour, in Pelican Village doing art, if he is doing leather craft, I don’t see them as doing these things as a pastime because they don’t have anything better to do.
“There is an element of creativity involved and that creativity has economic potential, therefore, it is worthy of being treated to seriously by the Government.”
He said ensuring creatives had the right of control over their intellectual property was a duty of Government.
Symmonds said copyright was “a big money opportunity for others outside of Barbados”.
“The revenue streams that can be created as a result of holding copyright mean that copyright is really a vehicle for cross-border supply of services, which may come in the form of films, software, music. There is a resilience in the creative economy and the tragedy is that the country treats to the creative and the creative economy as a secondary consideration in terms of economic development, when it is well poised to be one of the leading parts of the financial architecture of Barbados.”
He said that according to the United Nations Conference On Trade And Development, statistics indicated there was close to US$3 trillion to be made in the creativity trade.
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