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Plan to bring new life to City

11/3/2009

By Khalil Goodman

A vital and energetic city with booming cultural and commercial enterprises; that is the vision the Barbados Chamber of Commerce is embarking upon for Bridgetown.

The has learnt that the Chamber is currently putting the finishing touches on a Business and Implementation Plan with a five-year strategic vision to revitalise and expand the services within the City for the benefit of locals and visitors alike.

Some of the plans will include physical infrastructure changes, making the city cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing, and supporting the re-development of the city’s heritage sites and cultural spots such as theatres and city squares. A major focus is also extending the shopping hours in Barbados Chamber council member and Chairman of the committee overseeing the formation of this plan is Lalu Vaswani. He recently informed the this newspaper on the progress of this project.

Vaswani explained that since the conceptualisation of the project in early 2008, the Chamber has held stakeholder meetings with key Ministers of Government and senior representatives from the Tourism Development Corporation, the Central Bank of Barbados, the Royal Barbados Police Force, the Barbados Industrial Development Corporation, the Town and Country Planning Department, Barbados Tourism Investment Inc. and the Small Business Association, among others.

Out of this it was decided that a corporation comprised of the private and public sector would be formed with the aim to implement the plan over the next five years.

“We are currently completing the plan so we can see how we can implement these many projects in a sustained manner for the benefit of the country,” Vaswani disclosed.

“It [will be] a combination of several factors,” says Vaswani. “How to make Bridgetown a cleaner place, a more hygienic place; how to green the city to incorporate plans and also to promote the development of a longer shopping hour so that businesses can open [and] you can shop in and out of town.”

Vaswani added that transforming the capital to a 24-7 type of environment for the development of commerce, culture, entertainment, heritage tourism, would result in “more opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses to develop and make it a more attractive and magnetic place for visitors and locals alike”.

The plans include the development of wholesome night activities such as the revitalisation of theatres – such as the much-anticipated Empire re-development – which in turn would support late night eateries and nightlife. This, says Vaswani, would allow Barbados to tap into “untraditional markets to complement the traditional markets to make it a viable place”.

Vaswani noted that the Implementation Business Plan is expected to be completed by the end of 2009 with hopes that the corporation can be formed by 2010. It is anticipated that the private sector component will be in the order of some $500 000.

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as of close 9/15/2009


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