Annual Report 2020
PRESIDENT’S REPORT Trisha Tannis It has been an honour serving two consecutive terms as President of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI). This last year truly embodies the importance of flexibility, resilience, and perseverance. To quote, author Salvatore R. Maddi, “resilience or hardiness is the ability to adapt to new circumstances when life presents the unpredictable.” When I assumed the role in 2019, none of us could have predicted the unparalleled, world-wide impact from the global pandemic which began in December 2019, with the discovery of the world’s first cases of the COVID-19 virus in China. As with the rest of the world, 2020 proved to be a very difficult year for Barbados. The discovery of the country’s first two COVID-19 cases on March 17, 2020 influenced a chain of reactions that severely impacted local businesses and led to much uncertainty. The island experienced historic social and economic devastation, with almost every aspect of our lives upended by the necessary, hard-line measures to manage COVID-19 and save lives. The year started well for the Chamber as we hosted early in the year, a very successful business luncheon headlined by the Prime Minister
of Barbados, the Honourable Mia Mottley and Economic Advisor to the Government, Dr. Kevin Greenidge. The latter gave an update on the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme; the Government’s IMF driven plan to build the Country’s economy, by decreasing the debt to GDP ratio and strengthening the balance of payments. At that time, there was optimism at the progress made in achieving many of the aggressive targets set under BERT and the possible resulting opportunities for business. Over the course of a month, however, the pandemic significantly reduced many of the gains realised and completely disrupted the country’s economic reform efforts. The tourism industry, Barbados’ chief economic driver, was one of the early casualties as global travel was extensively curtailed to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus, leading to extensive business losses. To quote from the World Bank’s 2020 Economic Report on Barbados, “The country experienced significant drops in tourism arrivals, during the first three quarters of 2020 which severely affected tourism, retail, and business activities. With the near full travel closure and quarantine measures, the local economy was estimated to have contracted 17.3% by 5
