“Beyond the News, Inside the Issues”
Bridgetown, Barbados: Two more government agencies will merge if a bill before the Barbados Lower House is passed. These agencies are the Urban Development Commission and the Rural Development Commission.
Today, the Lower House was set to make the second reading of the Urban and Rural Development Commission Act 2025 which will replace two separate the entities: the Urban Development Commission and the Rural Development Commission. A copy of the Act can be found here.
According to the bill, the Act will make provision for:
(a) establishment of the Rural and Urban Development Commission;
(b) transfer of the assets and liabilities of the Rural Development Commission and the Urban Development Commission to the Rural and Urban Development Commission;
(c) repeal of the
(i) Rural Development Commission Act, Cap. 238;
(ii) Urban Development Commission Act, Cap. 241;
(d) matters related to paragraphs (a) and (b).
Last week, the Minister of Energy and Business, Senator Lisa Cummins announced the effective merger of three entities in the energy sector from April 2025. That news item can be found on our Barbados Update page here.
To put this development in context, the reader is reminded that more than one IMF report on the country recommended the reduction in the number of SOEs (State Owned Enterprises formerly known as Statutory Corporations) as a means of reducing costs and stemming the flow of revenue from central government.
According to the latest IMF report (December 2024) which can be downloaded here, the Barbados Government has so far completed the divestment of the BADMC and there are plans to restructure the National Housing Corporation.
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