BARBADOS WILL continue to benefit from Britain’s international development aid, though that country has effected major spending cuts in its recent budget. British High Commissioner to the region Paul Brummell said, “Despite the big spending cuts, what the government has made clear is, we will continue to see a strong and energetic programme delivered by our Department of International Development,” and he pointed out the Caribbean was a beneficiary. “One issue I think that does need to be borne in mind is that the public finance position in the United Kingdom is very tight.
“The British government, a few weeks after the change in administration, passed an emergency budget to address some public finance challenges to bring down the deficit to put us in a stronger position going forward”, Brummell explained.
From the British perspective, measures taken by the new coalition government offered “the proposition that Britain is very much open to business” and served “to emphasise the role of British embassies and high commissions around the world in supporting British business, supporting British exports into Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, and that Britain itself is an increasingly attractive destination for investment”.
However, Brummell said: “The relationship between the UK and Barbados was very strong under the old government and equally so under the new government. There is absolutely no departure from the proposition that the new government is pretty keen to continue a relationship of close friendship and close cooperation with Barbados and the wider Caribbean.”
The high commissioner acknowledged there were challenges for Barbados and the region, noting that Barbados had faced a drop in British visitor arrivals, “but I think the UK is very keen to support Barbados in facing these challenges,” he said.
(GC)
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