Sinckler: Time to wean off of Government
Monday June 06 2011 | 03:47 AM

MINISTER OF FINANCE and Economic Affairs Chris Sinckler has challenged the private sector to wean itself off Government even as it uses incentives and concessions to promote greater levels of efficiency, innovation and investment.

Sinckler said the country was looking to the leaders of enterprise to work with Government to “underwrite a new period of economic expansion”.

He said foreign investment must be matched by an equally aggressive domestic investment platform.

The minister added that joint partnerships between Government and the private sector had to become a structured feature of the economic landscape.

“A significant part of the success we achieve in emerging successfully from this recessionary period will be dependent not just on the resurgence of the global economy . . . but the recovery must be unwritten by us in Barbados,” Sinckler remarked.

He said the banking system was flush with “copious levels of liquidity” and the private sector was overflowing with ideas.

“It is our duty both as Government and the private sector working to deploy these assets to further our cause for economic and social development,” he said.

He was addressing members of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry during the luncheon at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre which followed their 185th annual general meeting.

Sinckler also urged the business community to take advantage of the trade agreements which Barbados has signed, especially the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union.