Mark Time!

Mark time! For more than four years it seems as though this is the command that has guided the actions of government as we march while standing in place, going nowhere and having nothing to show for our efforts but a sadly diminished fatted calf. With 80% of the term of office gone, there is little to show for it except a huge fiscal deficit, a few highway round a bouts, and a bloated government structure hanging like a millstone around the necks of the taxpayers.

The drift that has become the most identifiable feature of this administration is now underscored by a series of studies to be launched at the 11^th hour and promises to enact legislation to address crop theft.

The most recent initiative is the establishment of an action team to focus on the economy, business and labour with 5 members each from government, business and the labour unions. Precisely what this team is supposed to achieve is not quite clear as they are tasked to address economic problems, business facilitation and the social safety net. Styled an action committee it is not clear what action they might take and the structural authority that the committee might have to take any action at all.

There is a deep suspicion that this exercise is more of a public relations effort aimed at quieting the growing disenchantment with rising prices, increased taxation and rising unemployment. Certainly there is nothing in the estimates that would indicate that the government has any intention of putting its fiscal house in order or stimulating the productive sectors of our economy.

The malaise affecting the telecommunications businesses and the slow deployment of broadband connectivity is a glaring example of the hiatus in policy initiatives for the past 4 years. Barbados was a leading destination in the Caribbean for robust broadband networks and an increasingly competitive communications environment. Local loop bundling and number portability were to be implemented. Nothing has happened.

Technology does not stand still and there is a increasing awareness that there is a growing need for wider bandwidth to attract the investment needed for the businesses of tomorrow. Barbados is eminently suited for the deployment of an ultra wide bandwidth network with fiber deployed to businesses and the home. It will take time to achieve this but if the goal is not stated we will never achieve it.

The benefits of such a network deployment are many. They range from more efficient business models that improve service and cut cost, to the delivery of learning programs that would enhance lifelong education and improve the quality and range of teaching tools.

 It would also open the world to employment opportunities for many Barbadians, and allow the best and the brightest of the Barbadian Diaspora to interact with their native land and contribute in a meaningful way to the economic and social development of Barbados.

Imagine the impact on our island if 20% of workers could work from home. Some jobs could be full time remote jobs while others may include a blend of in office and remote. But in total, consider a net 20% remote work on our fuel import bill from the reduction in transport, easing of congestion and an enhanced quality of life. The ability to work remotely will transform the nature of the labour pool. Barbadians will be able to access employment opportunities overseas and earn valuable foreign exchange.

The action committee should focus on the core national needs. World class communications is a critical foundation for our 21st century global economy. By setting clear targets for high speed network deployment and ensuring a fair competitive framework for investors we may once again lead in this field. In so doing, Barbadians will be positioned to accrue the benefits of a connected globe.

phillip.goddard@braggadax.com

Public Policy and Expediency

The need for predictability and for protecting reliance on settled rules is vital to promoting a vibrant investment climate, stimulating economic growth, and creation of a vibrant opportunity for employment. At the same time we must not become so rigid that we find ourselves so unreasonably shackled by precedent that we cannot respond effectively to crisis or new threats as they emerge.

The response to the existential threat of HIV/AIDS at the end of the last century is a case in point. With the growing awareness, that left unchecked, the HIV virus would wreak havoc on our society it was evident that a new multifaceted approach was necessary to combat this deadly disease. It was not just a health issue but an economic one as well, that challenged the structure of our society and had grave national security implications.  We had to devise new responses to check the spread of infection and decrease the mortality rate caused by this unparalleled assault on the immunity systems of those that were infected with the HIV virus.

New systems of free diagnosis, confidentiality and free treatment were implemented for all and a public information programme was launched to sensitize the public about sexually transmitted diseases with an emphasis on the HIV virus. The programme has evolved and continues to do so with some levels of success that is in large part due to dedicated medical staff who are involved in the diagnostic, counseling and treatment services to the Barbadian community.

Another seminal event in our recent history was the financial shock following the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001. Once again, the government of the day responded swiftly and decisively. Immediately taking the whole nation into its confidence, a national consultation was swiftly held to outline government’s immediate plans and to facilitate inputs from a broad cross section of the community to generate a response that would protect our key economic interests and prevent a collapse of the economy. It acted with dispatch and transparency to analyze the situation and develop solutions. 

Alas, these past few years, as we have endured the deepest global economic crisis in nearly a century, the government’s response has been to largely ignore the severe recession and to engage in series of bewildering responses to significant business failures that largely consisted of corporate cronyism and significant dollops of corporate welfare. The long delay in addressing the Clico affair with the collapse of CL Financial and the gaps in supervision of the company in subsequent months as well as the abnormally long delay in appointing a judicial manager are inexplicable. It speaks of gross incompetence or worse.

The failure of the Four Seasons venture has been another national nightmare with a slow bleeding of the public purse to sustain a questionable business model at massive expense. Now there are calls for government intervention in Almond Beach after years of mismanagement and neglect.

The public good would have been best be served by a quick response to protect the Clico customers and to allow failing companies to go bankrupt.

There is a growing unpredictability in policy formulation, and more importantly, its administration. It is increasingly driven by ad hoc political expediency and political patronage rather than by a consistent application of corporate law. This creates an environment that extends the business community’s envelope of risk to unsustainable levels and endangers our economic future.

phillip.goddard@braggadax.com

Think for Ourselves or Follow the Herd?

A constant source of amusement is the signage in our supermarkets indicating an aisle where we might find “Foreign Foods”. Are you kidding me?! The whole shop is full of foreign food. From the meat counter to the frozen food and ice cream to the pasta and rice and fresh produce. It’s mostly foreign food. Even some of the “local food” has significant components of foreign raw materials.

Our ability to copy wholesale the format of the layout of our supermarkets from North America or Europe is exemplified by the fact that the Foreign Food sections of our stores display Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Mexican spices, condiments and specialty items in exactly the same way that one would find them in Selfridges, Green Giant, A&P or Walmart; in the Foreign Food section and labeled as such when the whole store is a foreign food bazaar.

Perhaps this explains our mindless replication of energy policy and response to global warming as promulgated by the EU and to a lesser extent by the United States. Now that Global warming has been put under the microscope and found to be somewhat less than incontrovertible the cant has been shifted to climate change. The solutions for climate change, however, remain the same as they were for global warming and the hysteria accompanying the search for a holy grail of energy that is non-polluting, plentiful and cheap continues unabated among the anything but hydrocarbon crowd. Climate change what a wonderfully nebulous term that defies definition or measurement.  It can be applied equally to warming or cooling, flood or drought.

The hoopla that accompanied the screening of a film on climate change and the announcement that the UK government will be spending £75 million in the Caribbean over the next four years to address climate change issues was good headline press. As usual the devil will be in the details as EU consultants will be hired and EU products sourced to provide us with green energy solutions. At the same time, our Minister of the Environment announced a proposed investment of 377 million tax payer dollars in a green energy centre that would produce energy from wind, solar and landfill gas as well as a developing a waste to energy component. If this is such a good deal why is the private sector not lining up to invest in it?

All this at a time when one alternative energy company after another collapses in America. The failure rate is staggering despite support through massive federal grants and loans and billions of tax payer dollars have vanished. Germany recently announced that its decade’s long subsidization of alternative energy projects, primarily solar, has not had the intended result and will be significantly reduced. At the same time T. Boone Pickens who has lost millions in his well publicized wind energy projects now sees natural gas as the solution to America’s energy problems.

The Minister of the Environment now promises a National Climate Change Policy when we do not know what climate change is taking place. The global warming that everyone has been talking about has disappeared over the past 10 years and the rate of warming for the past 22 years has fallen far short of the predictions of the UN experts at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The reality is that fossil fuels will provide the bulk of the world’s energy needs for decades to come. The Barbadian geographic and economic profile demands a high density energy solution that is best delivered in today’s world by natural gas.

 T. Boone Pickens has finally got it right!

phillip.goddard@braggadax.com