There is increasing interest in the investment opportunities in Barbados.
Word of this came from Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, during a wide-ranging address to the nation, over the weekend.
Ms. Mottley told the country: “I’m happy to report that we continue to see more and more interest in investment, and more and more commitment to having investments that were put on pause in the early days of COVID, resume.”
In addition, the Prime Minister reported that Barbados’ foreign reserves were $2.912 billion. “That is in excess of more than 30 weeks of import cover. It is the healthiest it has been,” she stressed.
She indicated that Barbados had reached this stage because of the economic advisors, Social Partnership and people of Barbados working together to allow Government to put the necessary systems in place to fight the pandemic, and deal with the effects of Hurricane Elsa and the ash fall.
Stressing that it has not been an easy journey, Ms. Mottley continued: “We are fortunate…to have had the services of advisors like White Oak who helped us restructure our debt, such that one month before the start of COVID we had completed the domestic and the international restructuring of our debt.
“We were fortunate as well to have the benefit of advisors like Dr. Kevin Greenidge, and Professor Avinash Persaud and Dr. Clyde Mascoll, and Mr. Justin Ram, in more recent times, to help us be able to ensure that the kind of fiscal space and the economic decisions that we have to take to get us through this situation, we can do.”
Ms. Mottley praised her advisory team, saying that their guidance and advice greatly assisted Government in not being forced to make very hard and painful decisions today, with respect to the management of COVID-19, and oversight of other vital aspects of the social and healthcare services.
Some of the initiatives put in place by Government to respond to the pandemic were the establishment of the Harrison Point Isolation Facility; dedicated facilities for vaccinating and testing; Operation Seek and Save and the provision of care packages for over 85,000 Barbadian households.