BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

Opposition Leader Mia Mottley has warned that the effects of the current international financial crisis could be felt here shortly, unless the Government devised an emergency stimulation package to counter the expected fallout.

Addressing Sunday's closing session of the Barbados Labour Party's (BLP) annual conference, Mottley called on the government to issue a national stabilisation bond as a means of tapping excess liquidity in the banking system.

"This bond would be especially appropriate to finance an expanded capital-works programme that would lead to the bringing forward of investments in the productive capacity of the country," the opposition leader said.

She suggested that the programme could include a new hospital to replace the ailing Queen Elizabeth Hospital, as well as a new secondary school to replace one that was recently closed in the capital, Bridgetown, owing to environmental problems.

Mottley, who was addressing a BLP conference for the first time as political leader, said it was regrettable that the 10-month-old David Thompson administration did not deem it necessary to require an urgent audit of the exposure faced by the central bank and the financial and insurance sectors.

"There should have been an urgent assessment of the likely impact on the entire economy," Mottley said.

"That it has taken more than four weeks to have a national consultation is unfortunate."

She felt that a preliminary assessment would at least confirm that the sectors on the front line of any adjustment would be tourism, the international business sector and construction.

While acknowledging that her proposals would lead to a slight increase in the national debt, Mottley insisted that on the basis of the country's debt to the gross domestic product ratio, the proposed increase would be manageable.

"It is easier for us to bring back down our debt in two to three years than to deal with the social consequences of protracted unemploy-ment," the opposition leader said.

We learnt the hard way that the key to a small open economy is not only the protection of your foreign reserves, but also the protection of jobs," she added.