President of BIBA, the Association for Global Business, Marlon Yarde has highlighted the need for Barbados to continue innovating as it seeks to remain an international business domicile of choice regionally and internationally.
Yarde, who is also Managing Director of the Barbados Stock Exchange Group, made the comment as he delivered the welcome address at the opening ceremony of Global Business Week Conference 2024, the hybrid conference that is the marquee event of BIBA’s annual Global Business Week from October 20 to 26.
With Innovation for a Sustainable Future as the overarching theme of the two-day conference, Yarde stressed: “As we navigate the ongoing transition within the global business sector under Barbados’ new corporate tax regime, we are acutely aware of our rivals’ competitive actions. In this environment, retaining business requires not only diligence but also the adoption of innovative strategies and the streamlining of processes. We must remember that no one is obligated to invest in Barbados—external investors have options. Our responsibility is to create and sustain the most conducive environment for investment.”
The BIBA president was encouraged by Government’s efforts to digitize and facilitate “seamless information sharing between agencies”. However, he urged the administration to hasten those efforts.
Importantly, Yarde showered praise on fellow BIBA members, Secretariat staff, strategic partners and sponsors for their sterling efforts that contributed to another successful Global Business Week and Global Business Conference.
GBWC 2024 sponsors included Concorde Bank Limited, Seaco SRL, and VM Wealth Management Ltd.
The Global Business Week corporate backing included Diamond sponsor Invest Barbados; Platinum sponsor, the International Business Unit of the Ministry of Energy and Business; Gold sponsors were the Central Bank of Barbados, CIBC Caribbean Bank, and Nuvisual Media. The Silver sponsors were RBC, Lex Caribbean Attorneys-at-Law, Vistra (Barbados) Limited, EY Management, PWC East Caribbean, Scotiabank, Trident Trust, Clarke Gittens Farmer, and KPMG. (BIBA)