Government is banking on the economy getting a big boost from more than $1.8 billion in infrastructural projects, some already under way and others being planned.
This is what the Mia Amor Mottley administration outlined in the Barbados Fiscal Framework 2023/2024 to 2025/2026, which was recently laid in Parliament as required by the Public Finance Management Act since 2019.
While stating that the economy “has shown promising signs of recovery following the fallout from the pandemic and natural disasters in 2020 and 2021”, the authorities said “risks of a protracted global economic downturn and elevated global inflation” were a threat to the rebound.
They believed some of the risk would be “mitigated by the economic benefits to be derived from the commencement and continuation of several public and private sector capital projects and public private partnerships (PPPs).
“These include a multimillion-dollar master plan for the modernisation of the ports of entry over the next ten years, the construction of a cruise terminal at Speightstown, redevelopment of the Shallow Draught Marina; development of a local yachting industry, and expansion and enhancement of the operations of the Grantley Adams International Airport,” the 30-page fiscal report stated. (SC)