THAT BARBADIANS NEED?to focus?on entrepreneurship and wealth creation was the clear message coming from two Government officials this past weekend.
The point, from both Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart and Parliamentary Secretary in his Office, Senator Harry Husbands, was that entrepreneurship was critical as the country clawed its way out of the current recession.
Stuart, who was the featured speaker at the golden anniversary dinner and awards ceremony of the Police Co Operative Credit Union at the Accra Hotel, Rockley, Christ Church, on Saturday night said:
“It is now official Government policy to spread the entrepreneurial culture to a wider cross section of Barbadians in an effort to create wealth and employment.
“We cannot achieve this goal if the vast majority of Barbadians continue to acquire more and more free education to find a job, and forever thereafter focus on consumption rather than wealth creation.”
To illustrate his point, Stuart noted that a review of lending by the Police Credit Union for the past year showed that business development attracted a mere 0.01 per cent of total approved loans of $6.9 million, describing this as a classic example of the “paradox of thrift”.
The Prime Minister added: “It is patently obvious that the values and behaviour of our people have to change.
“At a time when the future of countries with small open economies depends on enterprise and innovation in culture-specific growth industries, we have to do things differently.”
Senator Husbands, who spoke at the awards ceremony of the Barbados Bottling Company also on Saturday night at the Azul Restaurant, Maxwell, Christ Church, said: “We have identified the cultural industries, sports, technology-driven production and modern agriculture as the potential growth industries.”
But he noted that “it is not an easy task to inculcate the spirit of enterprise and innvovation among standard employees”.
Husbands pointed out that there were benefits in entrepreneurship and foresaw gains when the economic crisis was over.
He argued that those entrepreneurs who stayed the course and successfully innovated and helped grow the economy would be the ones to develop all-around skills ranging from excellent customer service to marketing while building their corporate social responsibility.
The comments from both Stuart and Husbands followed the Budget presented last Monday by Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler which focused on job protection. (ES)
