Land for Everyone

From the Advocate

BARBADOS will not have Alien Land Holding Legislation. According to Prime Minister Owen Arthur, to introduce such legislation at this time would not be in keeping with the provisions to remove some 450 restrictions, as set out by CARICOM.

Prime Minister Arthur explained that Barbados has never had Alien Land Holding Legislation, but such legislation was prepared in draft in 1975, and was never introduced, so to introduce it at this time would be disrupting the commitment not only to the Single Market and Economy, but the regional commitment that this type of barrier to transaction would not be put in place.

He was speaking at the launch of the Town and Country Development Planning Office website yesterday morning at the Sherbourne Conference Centre.

As such, he added that at present, several members of CARICOM are in the process of removing similar legislation, chief among them St. Lucia. He said that due to this restriction being removed, some Barbadian companies have been able to buy land in other Caribbean countries, among these is Sagicor, and he added Barbados Shipping & Trading (BS&T) is making an investment in Belize to be able to provide a stronger support base to carry out its operation here.

Additionally, he explained that to introduce such legislation at this stage would also create a problem for Government, since most of the land in Barbados is owned by Barbadians not resident on the island.

I want to go on record again that I am wholeheartedly not only an advocate by reason of office, but I am a wholehearted supporter of regional integration … I do not support Alien Land Holding Legislation now, if it was to be effective it would have had to been introduced in 1975, he maintained.

The PM further stated that despite the opposition to the sale of land to non-Barbadians, under previous administrations, pertinent pieces of Barbadian prime agricultural land were sold to foreign-owned companies.

However, he said that his administration took a decision in 1995 not to sell any land owned by the Government of Barbados, instead they vested all the land owned by the Crown, especially land utilised for tourism purposes in the Barbados Tourism Investment Inc.

Moreover, he said that in an effort to ensure more Barbadians become landowners, Government has also sought to make it financially feasible for low income Barbadians to have access to land at affordable prices. As such, he said, people living in plantation tenantries can buy land at ten cents per square foot and those living in rural and urban non-plantation tenantries pay no more than $2.50 per square foot; Government meets the difference between the market value and the price they pay.

Nomination Postponed

The nomination to select a candidate for the St.George South constituency was postponed today to give the candidates enough time to efficiently and effectively canvass all of the members on the final list. This was agreed by all the candidates at a meeting this morning.

This is in keeping with the philosophy and policies of the party as it strives to have complete transparency in the nomination process.

We will reschedule the nomination for three weeks time at the same venue St. George Secondary.

ARTHUR, BARROW, MASCOLL AT ONE ON DEBT FINANCING

   Barbados’ economic performance continues to be under the microscope and rightly so. The economic dilemma of the early 1990’s, inflicted on the country by the then reckless DLP Government, has given cause for every Barbadian to be critically aware of the country’s economic affairs. Close attention must be paid to the comments of reputable economic commentators but more importantly critical attention must be given to the comments of those who would like, at sometime in the future, to govern our affairs.

    It is against this background that we undertake the Herculean task of putting the nonsensical comments recently made by Dr. Estwick into some prospective.    It is clear that Estwick’s comments on the economy is driven more by both his complete ignorance of the intricacies of the subject matter and the DLP’s political ploy to engender fear among Barbadians rather than a desire to regain their political integrity. It is for this reason that the Minister of State in the Ministry Finance, Mr. Clyde Mascoll must be highly commended for the tutorial he gave at his press conference earlier this week.  

The nonsense being spouted by the DLP, which, sadly to date, does not have a single trained economist in their mist is at odds with a number of persons and organizations with distinction in the field of economics. The last Minister of Finance in the DLP, David Thompson was a fatal experiment who has now been relegated to observatory status on economic matters. The utterances of his successor, Estwick, now beg the same fate.

    How can a party seek to govern the economic affairs of a country without someone well versed in economist?The Advocate Newspaper for Sunday, July 30, 2006 quotes S&P’s rating of the Barbados economy as positive with its long term rating at A and its short term sovereign currency rating at A-2 and most analysts are of the view that  Barbados’ economy continues to be sound. Both the IMF and Moody’s reports speak to the healthy recovery of the Barbados economy and predicts the trend will continue into 2007.

   After a critical analysis of every aspect of the economy including our debt position they concluded that the Barbados economy is sound.   The DLP’s column for May 12, 2006 acknowledged and congratulated the Government on the performance of the economy when it said and we quote, “We wish to congratulate the Barbados Labour Party on the continuing growth in the economy…” The aspect of the economy that seems to be unclear to the Dems is our accumulation and management of the country’s debt portfolio and we feel that no better person than the late Errol Barrow, one of their own, can help them understand this issue.   

   Barrow is reported in Hansard to have said, “In the final analysis or as we would say when everything boils down, the size of the public debt must be controlled by the country’s ability to service and pay that debt when the time of reckoning comes. The best judges of the Nation’s ability to pay and of the soundness of its financial policies are the investors … Any time a member of this House honestly believes that the country should not incur further debt he should have the courage to stand up and be counted amongst those opposed to development rather than to take advantage of the financial innocence of the   uninformed …”  

    Clearly Prime Minister Arthur, Minister Mascoll and the late Errol Barrow are at one on the issue of debt accumulation and its management.

“Poor Donkey”

Editor

The Nation Newspaper

Fontabelle St. Michael 

 Dear Sir, 

Some years ago, a very elderly man who lived in one of our rural districts had a   small donkey. However this man tried, he could not get any work out of this unruly animal. He grew tired of feeding this wayward beast, so he tied it under a tree near to his house and posted a ‘for sale’  sign nearby. There were many enquiries but no one would buy the donkey. So he kept lowering the price. Until one day, an overseer, a big red man on a horse, from the nearby plantation passed and offered to buy this shaggy unkempt dirty and bad smelling animal.  When the price was agreed at three shillings (seventy-two cents), the overseer asked the owner the name of the animal. The terse reply was: ‘that jackass there massah, he name “Franklyn”. Now what could have reminded me of this story?  Emma Francis (Mrs.) 

Debt Financing

From the Nation

GOVERNMENT says those concerned about the growth of the national debt, which doubled from $2.5 billion in 1994 to almost $5 billion at the end of last December, should look not just at its size but at its structure.

This advice came from Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance Clyde Mascoll, who delivered what he called a “tutorial” on the debt in his first major Press conference as a Cabinet member yesterday at Government Headquarters, Bay Street, St. Michael.

His comments were in response to recent suggestions by Opposition spokesman Dr David Estwick that with its huge debt, lopsided growth, inflation and a worrying trade imbalance, the economy may simply “crash”.

“We all know that the national debt has increased,” Mascoll said, “but what is more important for Barbados is that the recent increases have come from the domestic side of the equation and not the external debt.”

He said there were four main reasons Government could borrow from domestic sources: higher deposits in commercial banks because more people were working, as well as Government’s tax reform programme which has increased disposable income; a reduction in the reserve requirements by the Central Bank; reform of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) over the past three years resulting in surpluses that can service Government debt; and capital controls which limit foreign currency operations.

“Government, as a deliberate policy, took the decision to increase the domestic debt as opposed to the external debt,” he added.

“That means that the structure of the debt is critical to whether there is any vulnerability for the future or threat to our capacity to manage the economy.

“I am suggesting that because the NIS now handles as much as 17 per cent of GDP with respect to our debt – which is a tremendous amount – that the actual ability to manage the debt for the Government has improved considerably.”

The minister pointed out that if Government’s external debt had increased significantly over the years then it would be a completely different equation in terms of managing the economy.

“Because to service the external debt would require us to have foreign exchange, but if you are going to be borrowing from the NIS, that has improved considerably because of its management over the last two to three years, then that presents a completely different picture,” Mascoll said.

“And in that regard, it is not only the size of the debt that we have to look at but the actual structure of Barbados’ debt. That means that you cannot make wild statements about implications for devaluation because that’s not true,” he said.

I do not think you could want it any simpler than this.

Good Job Clyde.

Congrats to Scholars and Exhibitioners

It is a remarkable oppourtunity to be awarded a Barbados Scholarship or Exhibition when the Government of Barbados will agree to pay for all your tuition expenses at the university you have accepted at and also provide you with an allowance with which to meet your regular living expenses.

On your part the awardee has to do two things. One agree to return to Barbados and work in that field for equal number of years that he/she was at university and two consistently maintain a passing grade while at university with all marks being sent to Barbados by the University.

Of these requirements the scholar of finds some difficulty in the former requirement as often after having studied ib a field that there is little scope in Barbados for they may be recruited  to start their career in the more developed countries.

In our party we have two MPs who were recipients of these awards for excellence in education. Wonder how many are on the other side?

They Just Don’t Add Up

Recent statements by spokesmen from the Opposition DLP indicate that there is a vast vacuum in that organization when it comes to economic matters.It also shows their absolute folly in getting rid of the only one in that party capable of understanding financial and economic matters.Do they really expect the people of Barbados to fritter away the impressive gains of the last 12 years by putting this island back into their hands? Barbadians will never forget those disastrous years of the early 1990’s when a novice was in charge of our economic destiny and we all suffered as a direct result.

Opposition leader David Thompson has been loudly silent when it comes to economic matters. He was at one time Finance Minister although he would love to forget that experience. He will be forever remembered as the Minister whose only solution to the high unemployment situation was that our sons and daughters worked for bus fare and lunch money. It is clear that Thompson does not want to take on a confident Prime Minister who has impressed all at home and abroad with his knowledge and skill in economic matters. It is not Thompson’s style to be accurate, prescriptive and analytical as he prefers to operate in the realm of innuendo and gossip.He clearly lacks substance.

David Estwick fancies himself as a future leader of the Dems and he uses every occasion to highlight his case. The problem is that he feels that he has to speak even when he has nothing to say. Everyone at home and abroad is predicting that this country’s impressive economic performance will continue in both the short and medium term. The international organizations have no need, nor are they inclined to make this country look better than it is. If anything the IMF has not been pleased with this administration since we asked them to leave Government Headquarters and since we did not follow their advice in the aftermath of September 11 2001. For them to be describing our performance as impressive is a testimony to the economic leadership of this country.

Estwick is always predicting economic gloom for this country, we wonder why? Is it because the Dems know that they are destined to be in opposition as long as this country continues to progress the way it is doing now? Is it because he is frustrated with the lack of leadership within his party? Is it because he knows the people are not responding to them in a positive manner? Whatever the cause, he is not helping his case with his wild pronouncements which fly in the face of reason.

The truth of the matter is that our national debt is not a cause for worry primarily because only about 25% of it comes from foreign sources. Furthermore a large portion of the local debt is from the social security scheme, which in most countries is not even counted as part of the national debt. Our debt service to foreign earnings ratio is still very healthy, indicating that servicing the foreign component will not be a problem. There is no debt problem in this country and this is likely to be so for a very long time.

We will leave Estwick to his own devices. When we read his diagnosis and prognosis, we are totally convinced that he is out of his depth when it comes to economic matters.We will not put a gag order on him as both David Thompson and Colin Spencer has done but we will just watch him continue making a fool of himself.

New Prison

  From the Nation

THE NEW PRISON at Dodds, St Philip, is beginning to take shape.

Most of the imported cell modules at the US$140 million high-tech facility have been installed.

Last month Attorney-General Dale Marshall announced that the facility, designed to house 1 250 inmates, would now be completed by the end of January and not year-end as originally projected.

The United States company Veco USA Inc. is constructing the penitentiary on the 25-acre site.

This project is continuing well and we hope that it will be completed as quickly as possible and on Budget.

It was quite unfortunate for the previous institution to have been lost to fire and we look forward to this one lasting for many years. We understand that the instituion will be tremendously enhanced with better facilities for inmates and guards alike.

Every cloud has a silver lining and it would seem that this will be the silver lining of that other wise dark day when the prison was on fire.

Wonder if the DLP will ever find their silver lining after all those dark clouds they have encountered. It does not look like they will find it any time soon. 

Congratulations to the Happy Couple

 A very special and unique day in Barbadian history as for the first time we have seen a Prime Mininster on his wedding day while in office.

Congrats to him and his lovely bride from all of us in the Barbados Labour Party. 

Housing Upgrade

  

From The Nation

HOUSING in Barbados, especially in those most deprived and under-privileged areas, is about to get a boost.

It will be facilitated through the Inter-American Development Bank funded Housing Neighbourhood and Upgrading Project aimed at improving the standard of living of low-income groups.

Minister of Housing Reginald Farley told Parliament on Friday that the project will first start in Cats Castle and Greenfields in the City.

He said that under the neighbourhood upgrading aspect of the project, approximately 130 communities around Barbados which need improving and show deficiencies in amenities, will be targeted.

He said there would be improvements in drainage, water distribution, and roads.

He noted that under the home improvement aspect of the project four sites had already been earmarked. These are Cats Castle, Greenfields, Garden Land in St Michael and Allan View in St Thomas.

The minister said the two areas in the City were in dire need of development, as there was progress going on all around the people of that area.

“The plan is to improve the community for the people . . . Cats Castle and Greenfields will be improved while ensuring that the people will continue to live there,”
he said.

Farley said the project was now at an advanced stage with the a coordinator, researchers, investigators and administrative staff being put in place.

The MP said the other component of the project provided support for affordable housing.

“We are looking at spending $40 million to develop 400 to 500 lots for low income earners,” he said.

In addition, incremental house construction, which is part of the Barbadian culture will also be a feature of the project.

Another aspect of this venture, he said would go towards institutional strengthening to help improve management processes.

Farley said that as part of the project, approximately 2 000 new houses will be built, 600 lower-income families will have improved housing and 1 000 households will benefit from better neighbourhoods.

This can not happen fast enough. Housing is one of the greatest problems the people of Barbados face on a daily basis and again the BLP is sticking to its mandate to continue to provide affordable housing for Barbadians.

Infrastructural necessities like the roads and water and electricity have dampened our ability to provide the house spots as quickly as we would like but we shall continue to press on to meet the needs of our people by finding other ways of dealing with the difficulties so as to achieve our objectives.