It is clear that for the economy to grow, it must diversify and expand. We can no longer depend on tourism and agriculture to finance our development or to shoulder the entire burden for generating foreign exchange.
An important priority must be to develop new spheres of economic opportunity, particularly in areas that will give us access to expanded markets and will absorb the increasing number of trained young people we are graduating through our school system.
Our human resource development program must be revamped so that we provide our students with not just the academic education required for the 21st century work environment, but also with the wide range of skills, aptitude, temperament and confidence to succeed in any labour market anywhere in the world.
The Sir Arthur Lewis Community College should be transitioned within a three-year period into an accredited and full-fledged university college, affiliated to the University of the West Indies, providing state-of-the-art training programs and certification, with a special focus on the areas that we have targeted for the expansion and diversification of economic opportunity, namely:
Digital and technology-related services
Ecosystem services
Creative industries
Agribusiness, focusing on value-added in the emerging area of nutraceuticals
Renewable energy
Sustainable Development and Climate Change