Established October 1895 Thursday March 25, 2021 $1 VAT Inclusive DEBT TRAP FEAR BARBADOS has found itself in a economist, said the situation in which would tell you that they had to bear the does not turn into what is commonly deadlock and could be heading for a the country finds itself has to do with brunt of fixing that macro-economic known as a debt trap.” The fiscal deficit debt trap, given the new financing Barbados not having mounted the position by participating in the debt for this current financial year, which ends which Government intends to raise requisite level of activity to overcome the restructuring. March 31, 2021, is $1.047 billion. What in the coming financial year. external shock it currently faces. According to her, “Now we find our- was originally budgeted for at the start This sorry and possible perilous state “We find ourselves in a stagnant posi- selves in a position where we have an in- of this current fiscal year was a deficit of Barbados was sounded yesterday by tion for an extended period of time,” she creasing fiscal deficit and national debt.” of $255 million, a difference of $781 Opposition Senator, Crystal Drakes, told the sitting. She admitted this is due to COVID-19 million. who led off her People’s Party for The Senator indicated that while because of the expenditure incurred The country, she explained, had to Development and Democracy’s (PdP) Barbados’ macro-economic position is im- with the pandemic and the fall in therefore rely on external funding response to the debate on the Estimates proving, it is doing so at a cost. revenue. sources to make up this shortfall. for 2021/2022 in the Upper House. The economist said there are many “What we have to do now is to ensure Those funds came from the IMF, the Senator Drakes, who is also an pensioners and other citizens who that we are vigilant that this situation DEBT on Page 3 Senator provides update on hotel projects THE new hotel under construction at the Sam Lord’s Castle property in St. Philip, is set to be completed by the end of this year. That’s according to the Leader of the Senate, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Dr. Jerome Walcott. He told those in the Senate Chamber yesterday that construction has been completed on 308 of the 450- room Wyndham Grand Hotel. He went on to say that the multimillion dollar proj- ect is being financed through a loan from Exim Bank of China, to the tune of US $170 million. He addressed this as he led off the debate on the 2021 Appropriation Bill. Minister Walcott, offering more details on the project, indicated that when that hotel is completed, it is expected to em- ploy 1 000 persons. He added that consis- tent with government’s policy,the project will be sold to the private sector, stating “we don’t believe that we should be running hotels”. Walcott went on to speak about a num- ber of other tourism related projects, which Government is looking forward to seeing come to fruition. Referring to the Hyatt Ziva, which is to be built on Lower Bay Street, the Leader of the Senate said while that project was put on hold because of COVID, it is now expected to start later this year. He indi- cated that property is intended to be a 370-room hotel, with 26 residences, adding that all planning permissions have been received except for over- the-water villas. HUSTLE AND BUSTLE! Bridgetown is slowly starting to return to normal – at least in terms of pedestrian TOURISM PROJECTS on traffic – with some relaxation in restrictions. The Barbados Advocate was on hand to see some shoppers making sure that Page 5 they got all that they needed. 2 • Thursday March 25, 2021 The Barbados Advocate The Barbados Advocate Thursday March 25, 2021 • 3 More funds for cash-strapped CBC THE already cash-strapped quite frankly, at this point in CBC, but in the interim, the sume, and we can start to get ward to the new dawn of CBC Caribbean Broadcasting time, there is no money coming bills need to be paid, the ACs back with advertising rev- because I believe that with a Corporation has been hit in for the last maybe nine need to be fixed, place needs to enue,” he said. restructured format, with a lot hard by the COVID-19 pan- months...since COVID inter- be industrial cleaned, a lot of He noted that the revenue is of the new talent that is there, demic. rupted businesses in Barbados, repairs needs to be done, there also needed to upgrade equip- with new technology, we can This was revealed by and definitely since we had the are parts of roofs dropping in. ment. accomplish many great things. Minister of Home Affairs, shutdown in Barbados...” I don’t want to paint too horri- “...I would tell you, if you look But at this point in time, we Information and Public Affairs, He explained that the busi- ble a picture, but it is a dire at some of the productions from have a hole. We have a hole Wilfred Abrahams, in the nesses that would normally situation and there is no money CBC, you realise they’re not as that we have no way of filling. Lower Chamber during a sup- purchase advertising slots are coming in.” sharp as, for example, CNN. And we had to approach the plementary to the Estimates not operating. “So with the requisite There’s a difference in quality. Minister of Finance for a debate on Tuesday night for $5 “So there are no slots being amount of shame, Madam That’s because we are still bailout,” he said. million. sold there, and no slots being Chair, I had to go cap in hand using old equipment, a lot of (JH) In his submission, Minister bought. So CBC has been limp- to the Minister of Finance and which has gone well past its Abrahams noted that the ing along. We had a situation, say help me out. Because quite sell by date, and is in need of statutory cooperation is trying Madam Chair, where we just frankly, we can’t afford for our shelving. its best to make ends meet managed with the cooperation television station to get to the “Even our boxes, Madam Opposition: through advertising. of the Union, to avert indus- point where it closes down. Chair, our Multi-Choice which “We were doing quite well at trial action at CBC, based on CBC has other expenses as is the main revenue earner for CBC until COVID interrupted. the fact that the ACs (air-con- well that we are trying hard to CBC operates on an analogue Where We were reformatting the ditioners) weren’t working; the resolve. Like everybody else, signal. That means…your an- news, CBC News, you have a place needed to be industrial we keep our fingers crossed tenna [must be] able to pick up new-look news, the sets are cleaned; equipment was break- that the period of national another antenna for transmis- will the being upgraded, the quality of ing down…it’s not a happy pause will soon be coming sion as opposed to a digital for- the programming has in- place to work. to an end and normal com- mat. money creased tremendously. But “We have great plans for merce and business can re- “Madam Chair, I look for- come from? DEBT from Barbados Statistical Service launches new website Page 1 AFTER last having a mass by the Statistical Act to collect Inter-American Development roll-call in 2010, the National and compile data on individu- Bank, the Caribbean Develop- Population and Housing Census als, households and businesses ment Bank and others. is set to begin on August 1 this and to publish the information This year, the government is year. for public consumption. expected to run a fiscal deficit This, among other things,was However, she noted that the Act of $782 million and based revealed yesterday by Minister was set in motion in 1958 and as on the 2021/2022 Estimates in the Ministry of Economic such the government is well of Revenue and Expenditure, Affairs and Investment, Marsha aware that the Act has served the government is seeking to Caddle, as she delivered the its time and simply does not suit get $447 million in financing feature remarks during the a modern agenda for data collec- from external sources and launch of the Barbados tion, for data analysis and for non project loans of $250 Statistical Service’s (BSS) new data sharing. million. website. “This new website is just one On the domestic side, govern- With the previous website de- of those ways in which that ment is seeking to finance commissioned in mid-2019 and transformation is taking place. this deficit by looking to raise work beginning on the current But the transformation has to $334 million, of which $293 product in the latter part of that happen, not just in function, but million will be sourced from year, the project was completed in the structure that would be financing which is not deben- with technical assistance pro- able to deliver that function. tures, bonds, and treasury vided by Statistics Canada. And so that’s one of the reasons bills, financial instruments Noting that there is to be con- that we have been working with which are usually available to tinued development and mem- the team at BSS to be able to government.