Plans are under way to tap into the Polish market and thus increase tourist arrivals from that Eastern European country to Barbados.

This was one of the issues discussed when Polish Ambassador, Piotr Kaszuba, paid a courtesy call on this country???s Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss.

During the recently held meeting at the Ministry on Reef Road, St. Michael, the Minister said ???we could always welcome more Polish visitors to our shores.???

Mr. Inniss told the Ambassador: ??????I know that you have a population of 40 million or so ??? If we could only get one tenth of that we would be very happy. There have been talks over the years of air links, but Barbados really does not have any chartered flights out of Eastern Europe. However, there are several airlines that fly here that fly to Poland ???but I am sure that our Minister of Tourism and International Transport will explore all opportunities to increase air lift out of Europe to make it a little easier for your people to travel to our island.???

The Minister also touched on the issue of international business and informed the envoy that Barbados had been seeking for some time to finalise a bilateral trade and tax agreement with Poland.

??????Even though we may be miles apart and culturally different, the reality about it in today???s global village, [is that] there is scope for countries like Barbados and Poland to work together to expand investment in each other???s countries and we are satisfied that Barbados offers a good sweep of products for international investors who would wish to invest in Poland or for Polish investors who may wish to expand their reach beyond Poland or beyond Eastern Europe??? and we are determined to make this happen, to make it successful in a very transparent manner that would bring us benefits to each other, hence a Double Taxation Agreement between Poland and Barbados would be fruitful,??? the Minister emphasised.

In turn, Ambassador Kaszuba, who is currently based in Venezuela, said his country was ???open to such an agreement, and was looking forward to exploring further investment opportunities between the two countries???.

He added: ???After 17 years of diplomatic relations, it is time that we have something that we can rejoice about across the ocean, country to country.?????

theresa.blackman@barbados.gov.bb

Pin It on Pinterest