-President Ali urges fellow Caribbean leaders; says digitisation vital to economic transformation

UNDERSCORING that human transformation is integral as it relates to economic development, President Dr Irfaan Ali has called upon his fellow Caribbean leaders to adapt to the evolving world.

During his address to the St Lucian Parliament on Wednesday, President Ali highlighted that the region is always playing the ‘catch up’ game when it comes to technology.

According to him: “We also face the challenge of human transformation. Today, the world is moving apace, whether it is AI, robotics [or] digitization. We are now catching up on modernisation and industrialisation and the world has now gone past that, to digitisation.

He added: “So, our human asset, our human resource transformation must also address the changing circumstances or the changing global environment in which our human asset must operate. In fact, the human transformation and digitisation is linked to economic transformation…”

Additionally, the President underscored that digitisation would bring systemic changes.

“For us to remain competitive, for us to remain relevant in the world that we live in today, we have to adapt to the changing environment. Government must become more efficient,” he told the St Lucian Parliamentarians.

Using Guyana’s chairmanship of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to address issues like these, Dr Ali noted that opportunities exist globally, and, as a result, he called on his Caribbean counterparts to take advantage of them.

President Ali cited nearshoring jobs as an illustrative example of how they can augment the skillset of the workforce and generate more lucrative employment prospects.
The Guyanese Head-of-State then went on to say: “So, what we are seeing in many developing countries is a retooling and reskilling of our human resource asset to meet the needs of major corporations internationally…”

As a matter of fact, during November 2023, he made public Guyana’s strategy for preparing 2,000 individuals for nearshoring employment opportunities within the oil sector.

He mentioned that the Government of Guyana will allocate $10 million towards a grant programme aimed at partnering with others to train individuals for nearshoring positions.

To provide context, nearshoring involves the relocation of production from foreign countries to neighbouring ones with a similar market, language, or time zone.

Moreover, in light of Guyana’s upward trajectory, Dr Ali underscored the importance of examining how the region can be merged with the nation’s development.

According to him: “Today, I want to highlight that our country, Guyana, as part of our region, is open for investment. We are experiencing tremendous opportunities, including double-digit growth rates. We recently achieved a growth rate of 40 per cent, nearly 60 per cent the previous year, and anticipate rates in the upper 20 per cent in the coming years.

He added: “However, the question remains. How do we integrate the region into Guyana’s economic expansion? This is a conversation we are eager to have.”

“We are all too small to have different technology and different platforms operating in the region. We are going to get back to the same problem if we do not operate on a common platform,” the president firmly remarked.

Furthermore, President Ali used statistics and disclosed: “In the last ten years, when you look at our trade numbers, Guyana would have exported to St. Lucia commodities to the tune of US$71 million, and interestingly, St. Lucia would have exported to Guyana, products to the tune US$79 million,” he said while highlighting the trade imbalance.

He then went on to look at St. Lucia’s existing housing market, which, according to him, is an avenue for fostering collaboration.

“Let us say conservatively that you have a deficit in the housing market of 2,500 homes in the next three to five years; that is the immediate need, the medium need, and you use the conservative figure of US$30,000 for a low-income home; that is what we are building…You are looking at an export potential of US$75 million in the immediate and medium term from Guyana to St. Lucia,” he said before highlighting the export potential within this area.

The Guyanese Head-of-State then went on to firmly remark: “These are the opportunities, the real opportunities that exist in expanding the relationship and expanding the trade between Guyana and St. Lucia.”