The Monday, February 21 issue of the Barbados Business Authority, one of the more informative business newspapers in the region, contains an article titled “Attractive Environment For Investment” authored by Michael Austin, the Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados-based offices of Illuminat, a Neal and Massy subsidiary with interests elsewhere in the region that provides information technology and communications products, services and solutions that help to manage, develop and troubleshoot businesses.
The thrust of the article examines some of the factors that make Barbados an attractive centre for foreign investment. The article cites the pace of development of the ICT infrastructure in Barbados as “one of the main building blocks” in the island’s accomplishment of its status as an investment haven. Having said his piece on the liberalization of the telecommunications sector on the island and the impact of the subsequent competitive environment on both the quality and cost of telecommunications services in Barbados, Mr Austin goes on cite a number of other factors which, in his opinion, makes Barbados the investment paradise which he evidently believes it to be. He talks about the “reliable” nature of the country’s electricity service, the “excellent” quality of its water and the fact that “crime is very low.” Barbados’ security services, Mr Austin says, “access one of the most sophisticated digital and secure communication networks in the developing world.
“These factors plus a stable government since independence from Britain in 1966 and historic and continuing emphasis on education provide an attractive environment for foreign investors to thrive.”
Mr Austin goes on to describe the pursuit of the Barbados Integrated Government (BIG) Portal project, launched by the government in 2004 with the aim of effecting “tight integration of infrastructure and, over time, automated processes among government public servants.” Indeed, over time, it is expected that the government portal “will play an integral role in providing access to government services around the clock, seven days a week.”
The significance of Mr Austin’s article, from our own vantage point in Guyana, is obvious insofar as it helps us to better understand just why Barbados is much more highly taught of than we are as a location for extra-regional investment, particularly in the services sector. Unquestionably, Guyana, with its large land mass and untapped mineral and energy resources, continues to be an area of interest for international investors. The point about the article that ought to concern us, however, is Mr Austin’s perfectly valid point that investors are also concerned about the wider local environment that goes beyond their particular areas of interest. They want reliable electricity, good quality water and reasonable assurances on the issue of security. We can provide none of these.
Then there is, of course, the issue of “stable government.” It can hardly be denied that like the rest of the Caribbean there is a democratically elected government in Guyana, whether that condition can be equated with stability is an altogether different matter. Ethnic and political tensions persist with an ebb and flow which, to some observers both inside and outside Guyana, sometimes cause the country to seem like a tinder box; and of course, our general elections continue to be plagued with overtones of concern and apprehension which, in themselves, create an inevitable hiatus during which it is virtually impossible to do business in Guyana. It is as if Mr Austin’s article was written particularly with Guyana in mind.
