According to Member of Parliament (MP) for St. Michael West, Joseph Atherley, this is crucial to increasing competitiveness, attracting further investment, and for the survival of the water, transport, and postal services. I think we need to go beyond reform and have a total change in the culture with respect to appointments, promotions, performance and rewards, hours of work.. Atherley also found that it was important for Government to change the culture in which it does business. Therefore he supported initiatives to expand e-government. But the intention and the goal must be to bring Government closer to its customers both in the business sector and in the private domestic sector. It would help with the business of increased revenue capacity in collection, it will help address the problem of loss of productive time, he said.
In addition the MP found that the development of the creative economy spoke to the maturing of Barbados. cultural industries. He said there was potential to earn foreign exchange from these products because we have the talent, we have the skills, we have the cultural craft to do it.
It is critical, Mr. Speaker ... that we create a cultural heritage here which expresses the best of ourselves, which identifies us clearly to the world, of which we are proud, and which is one which can earn for us as we compete in this world for market share.
The development of these industries could provide a counter balance to the negatives of globalisation, he explained. Globalisation further facilitates the spread of capitalist materialistic culture, we see the promotion of icons who dwarf our own icons because of marketing skills and marketing potential. Because of this we find that the contributions and achievements of our icons and heroes tend to be devalued, and indeed the spread of this foreign culture in the new global context seems to threaten our very system of values. So the development of a creative economy in which culture is a principle component serves us not only in terms of generating employment, helping people to earn revenue, earning foreign exchange in competitive markets, but also defending ourselves and countering the influence of a culture which deprives us of much of what is good and ought to be maintained.
Furthermore, Atherley backed the creation of the Export Promotion Incorporated. He said that this would help to shore up deficiencies in the manufacturing sector and create incentives for manufacturers. The MP expected that new entity would play a strong role in terms of market research, because we need to know the politics, economics and demographics of the target market.
Atherley also noted his support of initiatives to assist the small business sector, the small hotels, and Governments policy of tax reform.
Quelle: The Barbados Advocate, 10.12.2004
