Government will be ramping up its efforts to reform several state-owned enterprises (SOEs) this fiscal year to ensure greater efficiency and to create much-needed fiscal space.This assurance came from Minister in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs Ryan Straughn, as he responded to concerns about a lack of a detailed action plan and policies for the energy transition of SOEs in Barbados and the rest of the region.Straughn indicated that SOEs were not required to keep a record of their changes in carbon dioxide emissions, but pledged that this would be an area on which to focus going forward, as he pointed to the recent change in the bus fleet at the Transport Board from diesel to electric vehicles.“We will go and put the necessary systems in place to be able to track this more effectively,” said Straughn.He was responding to issues raised by Gerardo Reyes-Tangle, Lead Fiscal Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), during the opening session of the Annual Review Seminar of the Central Bank of Barbados on Tuesday.
