By Alva Solomon
THERE needs to be a greater emphasis in the Caribbean to tackle youth unemployment, Dr William Warren Smith, President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has said.
He was speaking at the bank’s annual press conference at St Michael in Barbados last Wednesday.The bank in its 2015 Economic Review/2016 forecast stated that unemployment remains a concern among much of the Caribbean Region. It stated that research in 2015 indicated that youth unemployment figures in the Region are among the highest globally.
In Guyana the figure is reported to be in the vicinity of 40%. The CDB last year listed several factors which it named as causes and consequences of youth unemployment.
These include: the state of Caribbean economies; structure of the labour market; lack of relevant skills; lack of experience; lack of knowledge of vacancies; limited opportunities due to health status or disability; location; stigma and discrimination due to age, ethnicity, criminal record, gender, motherhood,poverty and other causes.
In light of the circumstances, the issue of youth entrepreneurship was brought to the fore as well as development and support for the creative industry, as counters which can correct the situation at least at a minimum.
Dr Smith noted on Wednesday that what emerging entrepreneurs need is equity capital. He said that in the past, the bank did not consider equity capital as a measure it could have employed to assist the situation. “That had not in the past been our core vision, but it is something that we are looking at.”
He said that small businesses, especially micro businesses,” will need a whole lot of money.”
Dr Smith noted that the issue of credit enhancement is also an area which the bank can forge effectively. He said it will encourage banks or lending agencies to be more inclined to engage emerging entrepreneurs. “We would be in a position to play a fallback role or remove some of the risks from them,” he said of the lending institutions.
“Those institutions are reluctant to use that liquidity,” he said, noting that he understood their position.
Dr Smith told the media conference that the Caribbean is well renowned for its creative industries. He said part of the problem, with its development, lies with informality, which has remained the bane of that industry for a long time.
“We have not managed to mainstream that level of economic activity,” he said, adding that one of the challenges is how to finance the growth and development of the sector.
The CDB has been asked to find a financing mechanism for the industry, Dr Smith noted. He said the industry is not confined to music, dance and sport, but also animation. To this end he said, the CDB has been collaborating with the World Bank on the animation industry, and CDB is also in consultation with a number of different institutions which are in the business and driving the development of the creative industry.
That consultation process, he said, is aimed at developing a suitable mechanism for providing appropriate financing for the industry.