Red tape main cause of region’s economic blues
Published:Wednesday | November 10, 2021 | 12:09 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Ambassador Malgorzata Wasilewska, has flagged the region's overall poor Ease of Doing Business Index as one of two major deterrents to attracting private-sector business investments to the Caribbean.
The EU ambassador was the only one of four panellists making a virtual presentation to the panel discussion at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday. 'Achieving Climate Resilience in SIDs' was the topic of the discussion, hosted jointly by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
She pointed out that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global economics is likely to be reflected in coming years in smaller budget grants from donor organisations, and so attracting continued private-sector investments will have to depend more on stronger linkages between the bigger countries and the region.
Already, economies of scale is proving to be a major challenge for many investors because Caribbean territories are small, geographically dispersed and isolated, and therefore, potential profits are not as big as elsewhere; hence the operational logistics can prove quite challenging to many, Wasilewska pointed out.
She continued: “There is another challenge in the region, and that is the ease of doing business. These are small countries with small capacities, (and) with often slightly outdated bureaucracies, a lot of red tape, paperwork; and there are efforts to change that, but it does again put people off from investing in the region.”
The EU ambassador acknowledged that with Europe also having a lot of small countries, it was her vision to promote investment projects between the two regions, which she believes have great prospects for success.
“We can do a lot with relatively small things. There is so much to be done with solar power, with wind power, but the countries are too small to carry the burden of such huge investments themselves.”
In response, president of the CDB, Dr Gene Leon, said more developed nations should define for the Caribbean, priorities which should not be focused only on climate, but also on digitisation, to make governance of the countries and states more efficient and improve the business environment.
“If you improve the business environment, then you will attract private investments. That is the only way we can tackle this issue,” he declared, noting that there will always be a place for continuing public investments.
He urged global entities to continue to provide assistance to spur economic growth in the region, adding that small island states continue to pay dearly for the ongoing weather hazards. This is made especially worse by the fact that most of these countries lack any semblance of economic diversification, with tourism being the major player.
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story stated that Ambassador Malgorzata represented the EU Delegation in Jamaica as well. She had demitted that post. The Jamaica position is occupied by Ambassador Marianne Van Steen.