THEY SAVE TRAVEL TIME, provide speedy communication - and keep money in the Government's pocket.

Prime Minister David Thompson made these points about video conferences on Monday after taking part in one at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.

"I'm certain that if you were to bring home all of your staff from the (diplomatic and trade) missions . . . it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars - no two ways about it," he told reporters.

"You have airfares, you have the cost of accommodation and other things."

Thompson spoke after the Cabinet Sub-Committee of the Council for Investment, Exports, Foreign Exchange and the Diaspora (CIEX) had linked up with Barbados' diplomatic and trade missions in areas including New York, Miami, Venezuela, Brussels and Toronto.

Thompson put the cost of the technology used in the exercise at $40 000 per mission.

"Without it, it means that the heads of missions don't meet unless we have the resources to bring them home," he admitted.

"Now that we have it, we can achieve two goals - we can save that money, but we can meet with them as often as we need to."

Thompson said that Barbados, a small country, did not have a lot of money.

"We have to make sure that our people work hard on our behalf and this is one way of (demonstrating) accountability, because we can see what they're doing," he added.

"Furthermore, because they [diplomats] are talking to each other, people know whether what they're saying they're doing, they're doing or not."

Thompson listed speed of communication among the benefits of the new system at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"It is possible that the Minister of Foreign Affairs could have a crisis and get up one morning and say I want to talk to everybody and would now be able to do so as a result of that technology," he remarked.

Several Government ministers, as well as senior tourism and Invest Barbados officials, witnessed the videoconference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign trade. (TY)