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News > World

Barbados Lifts Visa Restrictions for 30 Countries

  • Dr. Jerome Walcott gave a speech announcing that 30 countries could now travel freely to Barbados.

    Dr. Jerome Walcott gave a speech announcing that 30 countries could now travel freely to Barbados. | Photo: Caribbean News Agency

Published 18 May 2019
Opinion

The move is intended to build cooperation but it will also help the Barbadian economy.

Officials from Barbados announced Thurday the removal of visa requirements for 30 countries across multiple regions of the world as a means of promoting tourism and investment in the country.

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The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Dr. Jerome Walcott, made the announcement at a press conference Thursday at the Barbados Government Offices.

“Three weeks ago, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs brought to Cabinet and was approved a paper for Barbados to establish relationships with 30 countries which we didn’t have relationships with before.”

Countries slated to have their visa requirements lifted are several African nations, including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Morocco, Senegal, Rwanda and Burkina Faso.

Othes countries on the list include the Gulf states of Bahrain, Jordan, Oman and Qatar; and the Asian nations of Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and India.

“We recognize that it is important for us to strengthen the relationships with the present countries with which we have been doing business for several years and indeed to make new friends in the global world and to seek new opportunities,” Dr. Walcott said.

Indeed, commentators from the African nations affected by these changes applauded the move towards more integration with the continent, saying the move was made with “globalization in mind.”

The move is intended to build cooperation but also to help the Barbadian economy, with Dr. Walcott adding, “And in terms of Barbados, we depend on tourism returns, we depend on investments and opportunities for business and in this regard we recognize that in terms of travel, that the stipulations of having visas act sometimes as a deterrent for tourists and indeed persons who are seeking to establish business and interact with the country.”

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