Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss. (FP)
The Ministry of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development is currently reviewing insolvency and bankruptcy legislation in order to give businesses a second chance without significant harm to creditors.
This disclosure came today from Minister, Donville Inniss, as he delivered the feature address at Spark Global Business Caribbean’s seminar on Fuelling the leadership pipeline, at the Radisson Aquatica Resort.
Mr. Inniss contended that this move was necessary, as a culture of “kicking businesses when they are down” existed in Barbados, and was one that must end “without further delay”.
He noted that most entrepreneurs wanted to pay their bills and grow their businesses, and queried whether financing institutions were doing enough to share in the risks of entrepreneurs by investing through loans.
“Let us venture into new areas instead of being copy cats or doing things because somebody else is doing it…. If that attitude prevailed over time, we would still be traversing the world on steam ships, [and] communicating via Morse Code,” the Commerce Minister remarked.
Mr. Inniss contended that the training of students should instil in them a desire to take their fundamental knowledge and “become movers and shakers on the world stage”, and therefore suggested that the members of society should collaborate to create greater entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, as these two factors would allow the country to make a paradigm shift in how it operated its economy.