Caribbean Community Information

Barbados:

Barbados was first occupied by the British in 1627 when Captain Henry Powell landed in Hole Town (Jamestown) with a party of 80 settlers and 10 slaves to colonize the island. Barbados was a self-funding colony under uninterrupted British rule from 1627 until 1961. From 1958 to 1962, Barbados was one of the 10 members of the West Indies Federation (WIF), Sir Grantley Adams served as it's first and only prime minister. When the WIF ceased to exist Barbados was granted internal autonomy as a self-governing colony. Following several attempts to form another Federation comprised of Barbados and the Leeward and Windward Islands, Barbados negotiated it's own independence at a constitutional conference with the United Kingdom in June 1966.

After years of peaceful and democratic progress Barbados became an independent state within the British Commonwealth on November 30, 1966. Its House of Assembly, which began meeting in 1639, is the third-oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, preceded only by Bermuda's legislature and the Virginia House of Burgesses. The first leader of Barbados as a free nation was the Right Hon. Errol Walton Barrow, of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP); the current Prime Minister is Hon. David John Howard Thompson also of the DLP. The other major political party is the Barbados Labour Party (BLP).

On July 4, 1973, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Jamaica signed a treaty in Trinidad which created the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM). In May 1974, most of the remaining English-speaking Caribbean states joined CARICOM, which now has 15 member states and five associate members. Barbados holds membership to all the regional organizations with the Caribbean Development Bank headquartered in Bridgetown; and more than 30 international bodies including the International Monetary Fund, The World Bank and the United Nations and several of it's Specialized Agencies.

Since the introduction of the United Nations Human Development Report, Barbados has been ranked at number one out of 108 developing countries for which the index has been calculated. Barbados is also classified as a high income country with an estimated GDP per capita US$12,220 in 2006. In its 2008 assessment of the world's economic freedoms, The Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal, based on 10 economic freedoms ranked Barbados as the world's 21st freest economy. This also placed Barbados at the number one spot among the CARICOM member states in this category and at number four out of 29 countries in the Americas. This favourable ranking is primarily due to improved investment freedoms which the Government of Barbados has instituted and encouraged. Barbados overall score is well above the regional average.

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Also, Transparency International which is the global coalition against corruption in its 2007 Corruption Perception Index has placed Barbados at number one, among the 13 CARICOM member states surveyed as having the least corruption. Barbados achieved a number four ranking among developing countries and an overall ranking at number 23 among 179 countries, with Somalia at number 179 as the most corrupt country on the list.