Barbados prime minister: Caribbean must use digital technology to be competitive

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has said the Caribbean has many untapped digital possibilities and opportunities that can make the region a strong competitor globally.

She was speaking on Thursday at the opening of a two-day virtual conference held by the TT Chamber of Commerce titled Get Ready to Bridge the Digital Divide.

Mottley said the covid19 pandemic and other natural disasters that have hit the Caribbean recently, showed the region’s resilience to survive and opened avenues to force change and innovation.

“I have an idea that places the emphasis on our internal decision-making and our ability to develop good ideas rather than on external factors which we do not control. An idea that requires an end to any dissatisfaction between government and the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector.”

Mottley said collaboration between both groups can foster a virtual cycle which can convert vulnerabilities into expertise that can be used to develop high value global exports.

Placing MSMEs at the centre of the Caribbean’s future prosperity, she added, can produce growth because governments spend more money than they generate.

Caribbean governments spend in three ways — in the sectors that generate the most money and foreign exchange, in TT and Guyana it's hydrocarbon and tourism for the rest in the region; secondly in education, environment and social security; and lastly on the sectors that provide resilience to major stress, Mottley said.

She questioned, “Why hasn’t our regional governments and business communities deeply collaborated to build a seemly obvious thing of intentionally converting our vulnerabilities to expertise, and the leveraging of that expertise to generate high value global business from those who face similar vulnerabilities?

“To understand why opportunities, remain untapped, I believe requires us to examine the misalignment of the Caribbean governments and the MSMEs purpose and mission.”

Bureaucracy, Mottley added, while it is needed, has in most cases alienated divisions of labour, consistently reinforced organisational hierarchy, has firmly managed systems of written rules and regulations and equipped dispassionate decision-making.

“It is fair to say that the current structural framework of Caribbean governance, adherence to processes, procedures and protocols have a tendency to outrank the pursuit of innovation, impact or schemes. Added to this bureaucracy structure of rigidity is the skill set and disposition of its personnel.”

Mottley said the world has changed significantly, especially with the onset of the covid19 pandemic, as the biggest companies in the world were no longer oil and gas, but rather technology companies.

She said regionally MSMEs contribute to about 50 per cent of gross domestic product and was responsible for 45 per cent of jobs, yet many of them were not digitally advanced.

Mottley called for investments in digital technology.

“The unfortunate truth is that our regional economies are still driven too much by old technology. Our global rankings and competitiveness are testament to this.

“Our governments must make regulations and policies more fit for purpose. We can no longer adopt the 'one size fits all' solution, it does not work for us.”