BY JULIE CARRINGTON | OCT 23, 2022
Chief Marketing Officer of Touchstar Media, Ramon Dummett, explaining how the kid coder robot can be used in the teaching of Science Technology Engineering and Math while other officials look on. (Photo courtesy PMO)
Impressed with the quality of exhibits at this year’s Barbados Manufacturers’ Association (BMA) Trade and Innovation Expo, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, is promising to build out the life sciences in Barbados and boost the island’s export from manufacturing, in a major way.
Speaking to reporters following a tour of the Expo on the second day of the four-day event at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on Friday, the Prime Minister said she was excited at what was on offer, while noting that “It is only through innovation that we are going to get the kind of sustainable growth” [that is desirable].
She added that there were a number of interesting concepts on display, and Export Barbados (BIDC) was already working with some of the manufacturers, while work was ongoing to bring other entities under the umbrella.
Pointing out that the manufacturing sector continued to “do well” when the tourism industry was at a virtual standstill during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Mottley lauded the BMA, Export Barbados (BIDC) and the Ministry of Innovation for their continued efforts in building out new and innovative areas in manufacturing.
The prime minister shared that her government had been carefully scrutinising the areas of life sciences and biotechnology and the expected outcomes for the country, since many Barbadians had been trained in sciences, but the opportunities to improve their skills had been few.
“We’re also busy trying to look at the whole area of life sciences and biotech. And it’s too early for us to talk, but trust me when I say that we’re doing aggressive work in there. We recognise that we have a lot of Barbadians who have been trained in science, for example, but they have not had the opportunities to do a number of things that they want to.” Ms. Mottley stated.
She continued: “Our role is to be able to bridge the gap on access to capital for expansion to get to scale and making sure the capital is affordable. Our role is also to be able to ensure that we have the distribution and the marketing because without distribution you have a lot of pretty products not being distributed.
“In some instances, you will find that we are going to have to be able to do clusters, but with a single marketing brand.”
The Prime Minister said she was especially pleased with many of the companies and products on display at the expo, which included robotics, 3-D printing, lithium batteries and fertiliser.
Ms. Mottley was also optimistic that locally produced products could get into more overseas markets in Guyana and other countries.
“If the market is growing and those are our closest allies, then where should we be? So, we don’t only rely on 300 000 people in Barbados but we look at all of the surrounding markets. At the end of the day, if we get hit by a hurricane or storm and we are literally taken down in a day, we need to know that we have options and that all of our eggs are not in one basket in terms of the market,” the Prime Minister underlined.
Ms. Mottley lauded Export Barbados for working on “some “interesting things in terms of domestic manufacturers and new people coming in to set up” and the expansion of the agro-processing industry.
The Trade and Innovation Expo, which has attracted 61 exhibitors including some from Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, concludes today.
