MINISTER OF INDUSTRY Denis Kellman has signalled his ministry’s intention to crackdown on companies claiming manufacturing status when they are not manufacturing products.
During a tour yesterday of several small businesses that occupy some of the industrial parks owned by the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC), Kellman said there were two such companies occupying prime BIDC space.
“I know them well,” he said, “I will not call their names. They know who they are. They will have to know that there will be a new mandate to the new board to do what they have to do because they are in prime locations and they are using those locations to destroy the local industry.”
The minister said Government, through the auspices of the BIDC, would not be giving prime locations to individuals or companies that were not producing local goods.
“They are importing all the goods and then pretending that they are manufacturing goods. Then they are not doing what they should do and then they are trying to use that as a red herring to go elsewhere. They have to understand that they have some obligations to the people who they have been dealing with and they need to fulfil their obligations.
“There are persons who know that [they are not entitled to] the concessions they are getting . . . They are not living up to their obligations and we will have to do something about it and I will instruct the board to that effect,” Kellman said. (ROG)
