Barbados now has a financing agreement with the European Union which seeks to compensate this country for the expected losses from the 36 per cent reduction in the price for sugar by 2009.

Signed today by Permanent Secretary in the Economic Affairs Division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Development, Bentley Gibbs, this agreement provides for a grant of some BDS $6 million.

According to an official of that Ministry, the funds will be allocated to the Ministries of Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Business Development, Agriculture and Rural Development, Labour and the Civil Service, and Economic Affairs and Development and used in four specific areas. These are: Human Resource Development, Information Communications Technology, Improving Private Sector Participation, and Sugar Restructuring.

He said: “It is expected that significantly more resources would be allocated to these areas by 2013.”

The agreement must be implemented by December 2009 and executed within 2 years. 

Pin It on Pinterest