Barbados 2018

In 2018, Barbados had a population of approximately 287,000 people. The economy is largely based on tourism, offshore banking and manufacturing. English is the official language although other languages such as Spanish and French are also spoken. According to extrareference, Barbados is a parliamentary democracy with an executive branch headed by the Prime Minister who is elected by popular vote for a five-year term. The legislative branch consists of a bicameral parliament (the House of Assembly and the Senate). In terms of foreign relations, Barbados maintains diplomatic ties with over 100 countries around the world and has close ties with its neighbors in the Caribbean such as Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago. The government also works closely with international organizations such as the United Nations, Caribbean Community (CARICOM), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO) and Organization of American States (OAS).

Yearbook 2018

Barbados. In January, Barbados was removed from the EU’s “black list” of tax havens since the country announced changes to the tax system.

In March, Parliament was automatically dissolved in accordance with the constitutional rules. Prime Minister Freundel Stuart of the Democratic Workers’ Party (DLP) was criticized for not yet announcing a date for the parliamentary elections that must take place sometime during the year. The election, which was held in May, was an unprecedented success for the opposition party Barbados Labor Party (BLP), which received 75% of the vote and all 30 seats in parliament. BLP’s party leader Mia Mottley thus became the country’s first female prime minister. Mottley also took care of the post of finance minister. Even in Parliament in general, the female representation became historical; six of the elected members were women against one during the previous term.

• According to Abbreviationfinder: BRB is an three letter acronym for Barbados.

According to Countryaah.com, Bridgetown is the capital city of Barbados, a country located in North America. The world’s most well-known person from Barbados, R&B singer Rihanna, was appointed in September as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary with special responsibility for promoting education, tourism and investment in the country. Already in 2008, Rihanna was appointed cultural ambassador for Barbados.

HISTORY

The stagnation phase that took place in the 1980s after twenty years of economic growth, and which particularly affected the sugar and tourism industry, continued over the next decade without however compromising the traditional political stability of the country, centered on bipolarism between the Barbados Labor Party (BLP) and the Democratic Labor Party (DLP). After succeeding the BLP in 1986, the DLP was confirmed to the government in the 1991 elections (in which the seats in the House of Representatives were increased to 28). The consensus for the executive, chaired by LE Sandiford, however, fell sharply after the introduction of drastic austerity measures, required by the International Monetary Fund as a condition for supporting the local economy. Accused of having hidden the real gravity of the economic situation, disputed for the ineffectiveness of the measures adopted (which involved numerous layoffs in the public sector and in the primary sector), in September 1994 the government called early elections which gave a large majority to the BLP. The new head of government, O. Arthur, also confirmed by the January 1999 elections,attempted to revive the economy and exports to reduce unemployment, entrusting the department of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade to P. Goddard, a businessman belonging to that white minority (about 3 % of the population) who since the Second World War world no longer held any institutional role in Barbados even though it firmly held economic power.

On the initiative of the prime minister, in May 1995 a commission of experts was created to study and propose any constitutional changes to the executive; in particular, from July 1996 the commission began to discuss the possibility of breaking institutional ties with the British crown.

During the 1990s relations with Trinidad and Tobago improved, which deteriorated between 1982 and 1985 due to the support offered by Barbados to the USA following the invasion of Grenada, while the good relations with Washington were further confirmed by an agreement of interregional cooperation to combat drug trafficking (1996). Sensitive to the need for economic integration of Caribbean states, Barbados continued to support the need for greater cooperation within CARICOM (Caribbean Community and Common Market).