Stuart defends economic policy to revive struggling Barbados economy

Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has defended the economic policies of his administration saying that he was certain that the current policies being pursued today, would yield the success for the future in the future. The government has begun laying off employees as part of a program to revive the ailing economy and has also indicated that it would not be rushing to fill vacancies within the public service.

The government’s policy has come under fire from the trade unions and even Dr. David Estwick, Minister of Agriculture, said the government was using the “wrong medicine” to deal with the economic problems facing the island.

But as he addressed supporters of the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) at a constituency branch meeting on Sunday night,  Prime Minister Stuart said his administration was not playing “blind man’s bluff” with the local economy and would also not be derailed from its fiscal programme.

He likened the plans to restructure the economy to that of building a house, saying it would be foolish to take on every bit of advice about the structure. He went on to say, “You can’t be vacillating and changing today and changing tomorrow. That’s why you build a house according to a plan.”

The prime minister also said, “If you start to build a house and everybody pass by and tell you how the roof should look  and you take that advise the house will never finish…. so that’s the route we are going and I am sure it will yield the kind of success to which we all look forward”.

Stuart also called on the private sector to play its part in moving the country forward. He said he would like to see the private sector show less “analysis paralysis” with regards to attracting investments and “take the ball and run with it”.

Prime Minister Stuart said what Barbados needed was a “genuinely concerned entrepreneurial class” less interested in “how we can consume foreign exchange” and more concerned about earning foreign exchange and investing.

Source: Caribbean360