PRIME MINISTER FREUNDEL STUART is concerned that almost half-century after the first law to promote the international business sector was passed, stakeholders have still not reached agreement on the real value of the industry.
And he said yesterday that while Government was doing what it could to respond to the concerns of those involved in the sector, the various actors – the International Business Division of the Ministry of International Business and International Transport, the Barbados International Business Association, the Inland Revenue Department, the Financial Services Commission, the Central Bank, the Labour Department, the Immigration Department, Customs and Invest Barbados – must feel the need to work together with a clear understanding of their interdependence.
Stuart was speaking at the International Business Stakeholders Consultation at Hilton Barbados when he contended that “nothing but consensus on this issue will suffice”.
“If we want to be frank, 47 years after the passage of the first piece of legislation to promote this sector, it has to be conceded that the consensus of which I speak does not exist,” he said. (DP)
