The Barbados Energy Local Content Development Project has been completed, and a team of consultants from the Commonwealth Secretariat will hand over the documents to Minister of Energy and Business, Senator Lisa Cummins, this Friday.
Senator Cummins will receive the new Financial Technical Assistance Programme Strategy Document and Local Content Department Report, and a draft Barbados Energy Local Content Bill.
The Barbados Energy Local Content Development Project, funded by the Indian Government through the India-UN Development Partnership Fund, started just over a year ago, and it was aimed at progressively increasing access to and participation of local vendors and businesses in the energy industry value chain.
Participation by local producers and suppliers in the energy value-chain activities in Barbados, as in many developing countries, has been limited because of several barriers. These obstacles include inadequate capacity of local suppliers to compete for market opportunities; lack of local content policies and regulatory requirements; and high capital and specialised input requirements by the energy industry.
In an effort to seek to address these challenges, Government pursued the Barbados Energy Local Content Development Project to facilitate the strengthening of its policy and regulatory framework for local content development; development of competitive capabilities for local manufacturers and service providers; and access to market opportunities available in the energy value chain in Barbados.