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| Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Chris Sinckler (FP)?? |
Plans are on the table by Government to introduce ways of safeguarding the creative rights of citizens and to fast track innovation, by introducing a Data Protection Bill.
Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Chris Sinckler, made this disclosure today, while addressing a meeting of Certified General Accountants at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
Mr. Sinckler said government was now working on the pieces of legislation, which he expected would be presented before Parliament "very shortly".?? He added that the proposed new policy on intellectual property rights would "radically transform the way in which we promote the creation of new ideas and protect the efforts of nationals and non-nationals alike, who innovate from day to day and produce numerous things for economic and social and cultural development".
The Finance Minister pointed to severe challenges that existed with regards to innovation in Barbados, as far as small business entrepreneurship and risk-taking was concerned.
He was of the view that careful consideration needed to be taken in determining how the culture of innovation, risk-taking and entrepreneurship could be facilitated in Barbados.
"It is clear that in any business environment, any new idea is at risk of failure. However, there is such a large ingrained cultural opposition to failure…. that has hampered our ability to help good innovative ideas by smart young people from growing from the idea to a practical delivery of a colour and a service. This has to change," he stressed.
"We must embrace failure as daunting as it is because through failure …comes success," he remarked.
Mr. Sinckler also mentioned a number of government-led initiatives aimed at bolstering innovation and economic growth. These included the National Innovation Fund’s $1 million equity which is administered by the Enterprise Growth Fund for small industries, along with the biannual innovation competition administered by the National Council for Science and Technology.