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Prime Minister Mottley Talks Digital @BITT Conference

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Today’s speech by Prime Minister Mia Mottley at the Bitt Conference is one that we would never have heard under the former government. The disruptive explosion of Fintechs across the globe is well documented – the race to transform Barbados from an analogue to digital space finds Barbados playing catchup.

Many will criticize the prime minister for daring to assume risk by integrating emerging technology into the way we do business in Barbados. The blogmaster commends her leadership to digitally transform Barbados. The reality is that we have to or continue to slide to the bottom of the pile on the indices which log competitiveness.  It is noteworthy that in the sub region the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has rolled out a blockchain pilot with Bitt Inc.

 

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424 responses to “Prime Minister Mottley Talks Digital @BITT Conference”

  1. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    Dumbass Enuff yardfowl…do you really think the Abeds consider themselves Bajans..they are middle easterners first, then Trini…and only Bajan as it works for them to monopolize, exploit and get away, with the help of the idiots in parliament, both stupid governments, with whatever they have been doing for over 40 years, 2 generations of Abeds…without any consequences..without any lock up..let them be held accountable for what they have done and are still doing and you will see how much Bajan they are, they will be on the first flight to Europe or Middle East….fool.

    Ya dummy..

  2. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    Ah admit that was kinda cold, but Enuff yardfowl is just plain ridiculous, one of those dumb Bajans who will cause his own people to be ripped off and disenfranchised for another 300 years, just like the jackasses in parliament…idiot.

  3. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @PLT

    I rest my case about caution. Apart from ownership (President, chairman, CEO, CFO – all titles) who is to protect the consumer? What about cyber crime? Again, I suggest caution. The

  4. David Avatar
    David

    @Peter

    You will agree that the reason for the pilot and the narrative lead by the PM is to bring these kinds of issues to the fore so that they can be addressed?

  5. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    You will agree that the reason for the pilot and the narrative lead by the PM is to bring these kinds of issues to the fore so that they can be addressed?(Quote)

    Nonsense. Another example of a limited ability to reason. Before launching a pilot you do your homework ie set in place certain precautionary measures. Have they done any stress tests? Have they taken any evidence from experts on the potential threats? Please re-read the reports on the Silk Road and the Dark Web and crypto-jacking. Chck out Webroot. Anything that looks too easy, cannot be that easy.
    I know a very intelligent Bajan who was instrumental in organising a seminar on cyber crime, four years or so ago. I am sure, had not for his job, he would have joined this debate. By the way, City University in London has a very good cybercrime unit. Talk to them.

  6. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Investors to lose

    http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/196825/investors-lose

  7. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Let Mia deal with all the negative fall out from the default

  8. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Mia is part of the collective problems that have this countrt drowning in debt
    Barbados needs growth path proposal not another initiative that would lead people down a garden path of unseen scurrilous activity

  9. Bajan in NY Avatar
    Bajan in NY

    @September 19, 2018 3:20 PM

    Let Mia deal with all the negative fall out from the default

    For all intents and purposes the country is in chapter 11 bankruptcy and we have supporters of the people who put in this state spewing crap day after day. Unbelievable.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    What the country needs is less yardfowls and yard ducks.

  11. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    What the country needs is less yardfowls and yard ducks.(Quote)

    What an intellectual contribution to the debate.

  12. David Avatar
    David

    And less buffoons!

  13. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    All yardfowls tend to sound alike..Enuff sounds just like Alvin when he was justifying crap done for decades to is own people, land theft and fraud ,thievery and greed….and finding dumb excuses that are irrelevant to reality.

  14. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    And less buffoons!(Quote)

    You mean fewer buffoons. Bad thing, learning by rote.

  15. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    September 19, 2018 3:44 PM

    What the country needs is less yardfowls and yard ducks.

    The political poultry is par for he course. They add a” je ne sais quoi” to the environment. We never needed them but they will be part of the landscape which ever party hold the rein of government. 🙂

    What we really need is to drown out the political poultry with demands of accountability abd transparency from our leaders. The majority of the populace needs to let it be known that we not accepting “this usual crap from MPs nor PMs” if we can achieve that little by little we will be moving i the better direction.

    Our MPs and PMs will wake up and fly right or they will have very short elective careers. They serve us we don’t serve them!!!

  16. David Avatar
    David

    Agree with you. Unfortunately sheep, goats, (jack) asses, dullards and the intelligent all congregate to make the world spin around.

  17. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Raise your game. Don’t be so predictable.

  18. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Let Mia first deal with barbados problems instead of using distractions to take peoples minds away from the pain and suffering heading in the country direction
    Start talking about growth plans
    Very few if any barbadians gives a rats a.ss about bitcoin
    People interest is in finding ways to keep money in their pockets
    Not being lectured in how to invest in internet con artist
    How about the bonds all being Red Wash because of the default
    Mia needs to explain

  19. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Hal Austin September 19, 2018 3:17 PM
    Silk Road, the Dark Web, Webroot and crypto-jacking are all entirely irrelevant to the challenges of mobile payments. This is NOT cryptocurrency.

    The things that we have to learn from are mPesa in Africa as well as Alipay and Wechat Pay in China. mPesa is already more than ten years old and the Chinese mobile payments volume hit US$12.8 trillion in transactions from January – October 2017. Yes that’s trillion.

    Look at it this way: in China mobile payments process the entire GDP of Barbados every couple of hours. This is not new untested technology… it is proven and battle tested in over a dozen countries around the world. It’s only new to us because we are so far behind the times.

  20. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    David September 19, 2018 4:19 PM

    Agree with you. Unfortunately sheep, goats, (jack) asses, dullards and the intelligent all congregate to make the world spin around.

    If u are honest you know that will never change.

    So filter the good ideas and discard the bad ones; but let everyone speak cause u never know when a jack/jenny ass may say something profound?

  21. David Avatar
    David

    @sirFuzzy

    Are you able to explain why a good batman is struck out by a long hop or full toss sometimes?

  22. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    I agree with Wily that blockchain ect pp won´t drive productivity as long as the in- and outflow of money to Bim is highly regulated.

    Barbados itself is too small, the native population too poor and too clueless to create any dynamic development. They lack any wealth where blockchain could build on. Barbados needs to open the economy, needs to abandon import duties, peg and any other form of regulation.

    The very existence of the peg is the reason why Barbados became the second most retarded island in the Caribbean after Haiti. The Barrow-notes, this insane form of national pride, kill the economy. They have no value and are only good enough as toilet paper and to light your cigarette.

    Barbadian services, work and goods are too expensive to compete in CARICOM and other jurisdictions.

  23. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    “It’s only new to us because we are so far behind the times.”

    Admittedly PLT..

    but

    The island’s population is still under 300, 000 and will remain under 3000K…despite all the trillion dollar signs dancing around in the eyes of the greedy, it is not a China or Africa with populations in the over 1 billion category…….

    So the only way they will see that volume in sales on such a tiny rock, is to exploit the people, …among many more criminal acts committed against the majority population, because no one will regulate them..

  24. David Avatar
    David

    @Tron

    You are a bit narrow in your analysis. The government is working to change the analogue culture. Change an old mindset in a lazy people by using initiative that is disruptive if you will. The pilot with bitt cannot therefore assessed as a singular activity to judge impact.

  25. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    …and will remain under 300K

  26. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    @ David September 19, 2018 4:39 PM

    I am no master batsman.

    A full-toss/long hop coming from a good bowler in a good tight spell may “surprise” you. Actually it may be a slower ball; You play the wrong(bad) shot ot a loose ball. You are over-confident; you don’t hit it with sufficient power; your placement is bad u pick out the fielder, the wind holds the ball up just enuff for a catch to be made. Their are plenty ways a long hop/full toss gets u out.

    for me the reason i got out with a long hop was naive instinct; i automatically went into a certain mindset with a long hop. The desire to lash it away over long on or long off for six. If the bowler has been really keeping me quiet with tight bowling and now a long hop shows up; u may want to let your frustration out and play the right shot in hurried manner etc.

    Its seems the bowling attack has been keeping u in the crease with little or no room to work the ball off the pitch; anyways some one will tire first u or the bowler. lol

  27. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @PLT,

    If mobile cross-border payments are the single issue, what are the implications of this for foreign reserves?

  28. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    @ Sir Fuzzy (I was a sheep…)

    I smiled at your comment at 9.33 a.m and noted that not a man or woman took you up on that comment

    But that is the smoke and mirrors being employed here.

    Ammmmmmm PLT in what capacity are you advocating Bitt Coin?

    Have you now or did you previously or will you in the future provide services to BittCoin or any of its affiliates or directors or staff?

    Grateful if you would declare your hand in this matter

    https://i.imgur.com/J5PluEC.png

  29. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    @ Tron September 19, 2018 4:42 PM

    I agree with Wily that blockchain ect pp won´t drive productivity as long as the in- and outflow of money to Bim is highly regulated.

    Barbados itself is too small, the native population too poor and too clueless to create any dynamic development. They lack any wealth where blockchain could build on. Barbados needs to open the economy, needs to abandon import duties, peg and any other form of regulation.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Tron explain this part to me. “Barbados needs to open the economy, ….. any other form of regulation.”

    How would Barbados operate if Tron had his/her way in redesigning Barbados?

  30. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Hal
    Mobile payments are not cross border and so have no implications for foreign reserves.

  31. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @PUDRYR
    I have never provide any services to Bitt in any capacity, and do not anticipate doing so in the future either. The organization that I serve has provided mentoring to the spouse of an engineer who works at Bitt. That project is in a completely different industry.

    If Rawdon Adams does not recuse himself from Senate deliberations which affect Bitt, then I will have a very low opinion of his character.

  32. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    What needs to change is the false sense of entitlement created by the government, unions, press and BB people of Brassbados.
    This idea that someone OWES it to us to be looked after…
    LOTTA SHIITE…!!

    By the sweat of a man’s brow should he eat bread.
    No sweat….No bread.
    Nuff sweat …nuff bread.

    The benefit of removing the peg (or of meaningful devaluation) will be to expose each one of us to the strife of international competitiveness.

    A $100 paid by the Government of Barbados to some lazy -donkeyed employee (or lawyer) for doing shiite can NEVER be equal to the US$50 earned by a Chinese labourer who works for a week in a sweat shop building Apple watches for export to the world …for that same US$50.
    YET the Bajan ‘sweet boy’ gets to buy the same goods and services on the international market….while ‘creating’ less than one tenth of the same value…. having been mostly off on sick leave.

    The question therefore is…
    If forced to compete DIRECTLY for that US$50 with a Chinese /Indian /Grenadian worker … CAN the Bajan come up to scratch…?
    The answer is yes of course…

    BUT why would ANYONE make such effort when government has implemented a system that provides easy bread, that requires very little sweat? ..in the form of an artificial peg of 2:1 … and which is supported by begging, borrowing, selling assets and going bankrupt…at the macro level ????

  33. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    @PLT

    Do local enterprises have the ability or permission to accept “international reserve currency” mobile payments. If a person wanted to pay with ApplePay from a US$ backed wallet (inbound forex) will that happen?

  34. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Piece,

    I am coming from a different angle. For ten years Barbados was badly managed; on Friday May 24 the people of the island got fed up and returned a 30-0 BLP administration.
    Implicit in this was the need for radical change, which was a bit optimistic given that the BLP published a flimsy manifesto. On the Monday following the general election, the government, in the person of the prime minister and attorney general, held a press conference at which lots of bits of paper were flung around and allegations made of malfeasance.. Some of us, rightly, expected the involvement of the criminal justice system. Nearly four months later this is not the case – at least in the Barbados jurisdiction. The only arrest so far has been in the US. Apart from the still-birth f BET, there has been no urgency about this government.
    But our new dynamic administration used its majority in parliament to amend the constitution (which in any other country is considered very serious) so that a person, disqualified from being a senator by residence, could become a senator.
    This chosen senator also happens to be the CEO, or at leas a senior executive of a cryptocurrency company. We re told that the new senator, with an MA in political sociology, has a wealth of financial experience, including a middle management executive in the UK Treasury.
    Now it appears as if the prime minister is endorsing this cryptocurrency by authorising a pilot scheme to see how it operates. I am not very clever, but this looks very suspicious to me.
    That this does not concern many of the readers on BU, including our Nobel Laureate of a chairman, is very worrying. But then again reasoning is not David (BU)’s strong point.

  35. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    WE GOT THIS. MIA and RAWDON. Political royalty.

    ” .Banks keen on digital ”

    http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/196613/banks-keen-digital

  36. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @PLT

    Are you sure you work in finance? If I went on Ebay and bought a book, it does not matter where the person is, I can pay through Paypal in sterling and it will be denominated in the relevant currency. Same thing with using a credit card. If I visited Barbados and used my credit card (which is denominated in sterling), it will be made in Bajan dollars, but I will be invoiced in sterling. I may challenge the exchange rate charged by the card sponsors, but that is all.
    Same way with a company: if you run a small company and order produce from a foreign firm, you can pay with your Bajan denominated credit card ( the exchange rate would be decided by your bank and the partner’s bank).

  37. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    “If Rawdon Adams does not recuse himself from Senate deliberations which affect Bitt, then I will have a very low opinion of his character.”

    I will have an even lower opinion of Mia..she knew this would happen…she amended and manipulated the Constitution so that this would happen…

  38. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Hal Austin September 19, 2018 5:14 PM
    I agree that the BLP manifesto was flimsy, but I confess to voting BLP because the DLP was so utterly incompetent. I too am deeply distressed that there have not yet been criminal charges filed against Inniss and the people who bribed him… that is a travesty.

    Bitt’s mMoney is NOT cryptocurrency… naming the company ‘Bitt’ is simply a clever piece of marketing by young Abed to attract US venture capital: and it worked.

  39. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @PLT

    So, the US venture capitalist were conned and did not do due diligence? This also raises questions of ethics. If a company, using your reasoning, has been named in order to dishonestly persuade funders to back it, what is there to stop the same people from pitching their marketing in a dishonest way in order to con ordinary investors – and the government?

  40. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    @ Backooful Jack

    You said and I quote

    “…We should be talking about how other young people could start up other tech and high end companies in Barbados.

    On(e) of the things we need is education reform to give companies wide access to the skills of the future given the brain drain.

    Secondly we need financial inclusion, that is to give young start ups access to micro finance (crowd funding, trust loans etc), given the reluctance of banks to lend to start ups…”

    You have stated several critical points about youth and their inclusion in diversifying the economy in meaningful enterprises.

    One thing that is missing from your message and that of all the critical administrators in this koolaid chant is what protection is afforded to all these young people?

    You may talk about the brain drain but I for one will tell any young man or woman RUN AWAY TO THESE CITIES whenever the opportunity arises because those first world cities are respectful of one’s intellectual property.

    Barbados IS NOT and it is a waste of time bringing any idea to the bajan landscape when the Permanent Secretary or the CEO of this state funded agency is going to take your idea and send it to his friend to develop it.

    Or better still give it to one of the ICT firms locally after he retires from the Public service for the two of them to develop together.

    What recourse do these young people have, youth WHO DONT EVEN HAVE THE $1600 for incorporating their company?

    Where is government’s official position on this?

    Do you think that the fellow at EGFL Symmonds or the CEO of Fund Access will sign an NDA with a pissy po man or woman that they will honour the ideas presented to them?

    Whuloss you really ent want de ole man to tell you how BIDC the leading entity pun de Innovation landscape is complicit in that sort of grand larceny!! where them does tek people IP and customarily farm it out to other cuntsultants.

    Looka doan get the ole man started pleaseeeeeee cause i would release 3 stories bout here dat certain people would not like.

    I say all this to say IF YOU START WRONG WITHOUT PROTECTION FOR THE IDEAS OR YOUR APPLICANTS, and non compete clauses for your staff, you have to end wrong.

    How can I be a BIDC officer with a Linkedin profile where I am marketing the very services services that i am paid to render at BIDC daily for a fee OUTSIDE OF BIDC?

    Should that man not be fired by BIDC?

    Steupseeee

  41. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    Piece..no you are not…THEY ARE SCREWED.. if Bajans refuse to use the mMoney service..lol…

    ….unless Mia plans to deport ALL the foreign banks…but then…THEY ARE STILL SCREWED..

    “what is there to stop the same people from pitching their marketing in a dishonest way in order to con ordinary investors – and the government?”

    In this case, the government went out of it’s way and worked very hard to be conned..

  42. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    @ Mr Vincent Codrington

    Kind sir, you as usual with your economic use of the written words score many a goal that is purposely ignored.

    You said and I quote “…It is not the magic bullet some persons are attempting to promote it as. It has the potential to destabilize the financial system without the power of governments to regulate…”

    “…It has the potential to destabilize without the power of government to regulate….”

    I used to admire one of my many uncles doing his three step dancing and sending his partners back to a full extension and then pulling them back in like an accordion.

    I tried that signature move one night with a belle that i was courting at a hotel on the south coast.

    Well let me tell you that it is a fact that a black man can blush 3 shades darker than he is. When I finally was able to pick up *** and pluck all the broken glass from her badword deleted and calm her down I learnt what it meant when people say “that you have to walk before you run”.

    That fine looking dugula NEVER WENT OUT WITH FRED ASTAIRE WANNABEE again (i sorry de ole man like de dugulas dem).

    It is interesting to note that even withing 100 days the BLP administration is launching a very sophisticated BITT COIN whatever dem wants to call it but in anything that is substantial, and FOREX GENERATING, IT IS SEVERELY LACKING.

    That should be very informative and worrying.

    You got de 1933 ENABLEMENT ACT, the overgrown HoA snd the Senators, and the increase in MP salaries and commissions all over the place with members serving on 3 commissions at the same time, and all sorts of other largesse like $15,000 cheques paid to David Symmonds and all the other PR things that are full of hot air and signifying nothing.

    But not one initiative to generate FOREX.

    It becomes apparent that they are putting the mechanisms in place to siphon off the money and to silence all dissent DOES IT NOT?

  43. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    @ the Honourable Blogmaster

    Your assistance please with an item I just posed here thank you

  44. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    @ Sir Fuzzy ( I was a sheep….)

    When you asked the question of PeterLT

    “…If you deposit a decent some of money in “mobile wallet”. Who has control of he money?

    a) Can the wallet keeper dip into your wallet to make transactions? Say lend to others on very short term instruments,ff course not affecting your visible balance when it comes to u making purchases etc…”

    He replied “…It does not have to be segregated to my knowledge from any other current account, so yes they can use this money to run their business…”

    And therein is the true nature of this scam and pyramid scheme.

    I am glad that he said this BECAUSE THIS IS THE GAME THAT THESE FELLOWS ARE PLAYING.

    A VISIBLE VIRTUAL BALANCE IS NOT AN ACTUAL BALANCE and at any time that users go online and “count” their money what is reported as being there IS NOT THERE.

    It is one of the most elaborate LOAN AGREEMENTS THAT BRASS BOWL BAJANS WILL EVER EXPERIENCE where BittCoin and its shareholders will get unsecured loans from all the brassbowls who invest in this scam.

    But leave them to their wiles “where ignorance is bliss, TIS FOLLY TO BE WISE”

  45. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    @peterlawrencethompson September 19, 2018 1:57 PM

    Were going to have to disagree. Wily Coyote maybe a naive REDNECK but he’s not blind or stupid.

    Currency DEVALUATION is the ONLY SOLUTION for Barbados. It will be a genrational tough love situation for all Bajans, in particular for the corrupt political class. Wily assumes that it will take at least one generation to rid the populace of the Entitled Malaise that is infesting Barbados.

  46. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    @wily coyote?

    Lest us devalue? What rate do u think is correct?

  47. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) September 19, 2018 8:01 AM “But capitaliste never reveal the true purpose/motive behind the entrée.”

    But we all already know the true motive of capitalists.

    To move our money from our pocket to theirs.

  48. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    @ The Honourable Blogmaster

    You cannnot be serious!!!

    You said and I quote “…You will agree that the reason for the pilot and the narrative lead by the PM is to bring these kinds of issues to the fore so that they can be addressed?…”

    What sort of idiocy is that?

    Let me put this another way.

    My piss can cure warts and chest colds. I have the testimony of PeterLawrenceThompson to prove this. So in an effort to the cutting edge, Chairman Mao decides that she is going to let me launch a pilot to “bring out the issues to the fore” issues like you are drinking my old piss which has no medicinal value and thereafter when a few bajans have drunken my piss “these kinds of issues can be addressed?”

    Ooops I am sorry I forgot you were being sarcastic again!

    Forgive me de ole man forgot heheheheheheh

  49. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Hal Austin September 19, 2018 6:36 AM “Who remembers the near riot when it was alleged a senior member of the Abed team hit a black woman in their Swan Street store?’

    Every day in Barbados, perhaps every hour, a black woman is hit by a black man.

    Aren’t black women the universal punching bag?

  50. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Hal Austin September 19, 2018 5:35 PM
    Clever marketing is NOT a “con.” Else FedEx would be a department of government and UPS would actually offer customer service. The US venture capitalists simply recognized clever marketing and invested in it.

    I do not work in finance and I never have. I am an entrepreneur who has worked variously in furniture manufacture, sailboat building, internet services, fine art, and management consulting. Finance is often a con game… I soil my hands with it only when necessary to achieve entrepreneurial goals.

    Mobile payments are not either credit or debit cards; mMoney is designed for Barbados currency transactions only at the moment. If Bitt decides to expand its geographical reach they will have to partner with a bank or other financial institution which is capable to handle the foreign exchange requirements.

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

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