Upward onward: Bajan excellence 2030
Overview (continued)
Barbados Budget 2023/24 - Some observations
Mission Transformation (continued)
The Prime Minister noted her administration seeks to move beyond the typical "tax and spend" undertaken by Government and
sought instead to use its power to legislate, facilitate and empower Barbadians. Critical to progress is stimulating growth and
three main areas were outlined - reducing debt, lowering commercial banking fees and restarting domestic capital markets.
Overall, the Prime Minister outlined revenues of $3.5bn and expenditures of $4.2bn, a deficit of approximately $750m to be
financed during the upcoming fiscal year. The second iteration of the administration's recovery programme, Barbados
Economic Recovery and Transformation, BERT 2.0 outlines the key targets, including boosting capital spend to 5% of GDP,
boosting domestic private sector investment to 20% of GDP and foreign direct investment to 7% of GDP.
At the domestic level, the Prime Minister and her administration are seeking to increase capital spend via a number of areas,
which are important to the public. These include $139m for the Queen Elizabeth's Hospital operations, $27.6m for road
rehabilitation, $20m for the upgrade of Barbados Water Authority's reservoirs and water distribution network, among others.
In her speech, the Prime Minister announced a number of significant private sector investments across the country, which are
either already underway or set to get underway in the near and medium term. These projects include the Hyatt Ziva on Bay
Street, Hotel Indigo and Maple Manor in Hastings, Pierhead Redevelopment Project in Bridgetown, Pendry Hotel in St. Peter
and the Royalton in St. James.
Critical to our advancement is training - both in the public and private sectors. The Prime Minister outlined a number of training
initiatives, some of which to be sponsored through BIMAP and the National Training Initiative which will offer training
opportunities to all Barbadians. The reform of State-owned enterprises remains a focus for the administration - with the aim of
giving Government and public more value for money. While no major layoffs are expected, the Government is looking to
improve on efficiencies and improved service through initiatives such as Management Trainee programmes to young public
sector workers.
PwC | 2023/24 Budget review | Barbados
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