The government is opening direct access for Barbadian businesses to regional development financing and export markets, as full membership in the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) clears the way for private sector borrowing and investment, Finance Minister Ryan Straughn announced on Tuesday.
With Barbados now a full member of the Caracas-based bank, firms can access funding, financial advisory services and international partnerships. For the past 12 years, only the government could borrow from CAF. The change allows business owners to seek financing to expand operations and enter export markets.
Straughn told business leaders in a Private Sector Dialogue at the Sagicor School of Business at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill that economic growth cannot continue to rely primarily on public spending. He said expansion in exports and private enterprise would be critical.
“This partnership is significant for Barbados’ future development,” Straughn said. “The Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) 3.0 programme is contingent on competitiveness and growth. That growth has to be driven and led by the private sector, with a little more focus on export. Therefore, it is important that we move quickly and with purpose to ensure that we can unlock opportunities for investment for Barbadians.”
Stakeholders attending CAF_Ministry of Finance Private Sector Dialogue. (Photo credit: Ricardo Roberts/Barbados TODAY)
He also addressed the structural challenges facing small island states, including dependence on external economic and environmental conditions.
“We are dependent on tourism, on the weather, on the climate, and we’re also dependent on decisions sometimes taken in boardrooms and parliaments in places we have never seen,” the Minister explained. “And therefore, we must continue to row our own boat to make sure that we navigate the impacts of these decisions. Today is a deliberate intent to ensure that we can chart a different path, a different course for Barbados.”
Among the measures outlined are efforts to expand tourism markets and increase rum exports.
Barbados is seeking to boost visitor arrivals during the April to November period by targeting Latin American travellers, supported by five daily Copa Airlines flights from Panama. The plan aims to attract 50 000 tourists from each participating Latin American country.
At the same time, the government is targeting $1bn in rum exports by 2030. The initiative uses wastewater from rum production to generate biofuel, reducing reliance on imported oil and lowering production costs.
Straughn also proposed a mechanism for wider public participation in the industry.
“Barbados likes drinking rum,” Straughn said. “The opportunity to drink a little less rum and invest in rum bonds is going to be a unique feature. If the recovery and the growth is to be inclusive, we must bring Barbadians along with all the possible opportunities that are available to them.”
Under the proposal, “rum bonds” would allow individuals to invest in the industry and earn returns similar to those available in larger international markets.
Small businesses and vendors remain integral to economic expansion, said the finance minister as he called for greater access to financing across all levels of enterprise. He urged financial institutions, including CAF, to support smaller firms alongside larger companies.
He added that while the government would address regulatory issues and infrastructure, private-sector participation would determine the initiative’s success.
“Export-led growth is not a government project with the private sector as cheerleaders on the sideline,” Straughn said. “It requires investment, risk, and the kind of bold commercial decision-making that only you can make deliberately. Government will build the highway, but we cannot drive your car on that highway.”
(RR)
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