A POLITICAL SCIENTIST says that instead of selling their shares in Republic Bank (Barbados) Limited, Government and the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) should try to take over the former state-owned entity.
Senior research fellow at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, Dr Don Marshall, told the DAILY NATION there was an important role for a national bank or a development bank.
“If we are talking about developmental projects,” he said, “then you must know that since Barbados does not benefit from angel investors – that we have closed the Barbados Development Bank (BDB) years ago – then you have to maintain an interest in a national bank, and I am saying the a national bank is needed for the fledgling industries like the solar and alternative energy sector to realize the real innovations for which inventions will be the hallmark of this enterprise.”
“The lie has gone out that the sale of the Barbados National Bank (BNB) was the best thing to happen. Now, we are bereft of any kind of venture capital agency or bank to which the state can incentivize or direct to lend in a particular direction. We now have to await Trinidadians to make that decision in Port of Spain.” (GE)
