A section of the audience that gathered for yesterday morning’s event.
WITH the upcoming general elections, we can expect to hear a number of excuses, promises and for the blame to be passed around.
However, the Hon. Donville Inniss, Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, believes that the time should be spent finding ways to improve the Barbados economy instead.
Inniss’ comments came during his speech at the Spark Global Business Caribbean’s “Fuelling the Leadership Pipeline” Seminar that was held at the Radisson Aquatica yesterday morning. The Minister believed that now is the time for the nation to have frank conversations and meaningful solutions to problems, such as our current system of financing education, health care and social services that were not designed to be sustainable.
“We can no longer waste time blaming Dees and Bees for the situation, because all of us must take our fair share of the blame,” he said.
He expressed that in place of blaming, we can look to engage in discussions and implement solutions that will ultimately allow the future generation to enjoy the highest quality health care, best affordable and accessible education, and look to create meaningful work opportunities.
In regards to entrepreneurship, he explained that he believed Government needed to break down the walls that tended to restrict the growth of entrepreneurs and cut out the indecisiveness that occurred when entrepreneurs needed assistance. He went on to say that his ministry was looking into finding ways to give businesses a real second chance without significant harm to creditors as he believed that there is a culture of kicking businesses when they are down, which needs to be stopped as well.
“There will always be some rogues and vagabonds, but most entrepreneurs do want to pay their bills and grow their businesses,” he said.
Inniss went on to say he believed that in five years, with the right kind of leadership, the public and private sectors of the nation will reform the economy and help the island to prosper.