Mottley eager to see greater innovation in region

Prime Minister Mia Mottley is blaming a lack of cultural confidence and issues of identity as two of the main hindrances to the Caribbean taking the lead in many areas of innovation and technological advancements.

And while questioning the lack of appetite for risk among some major institutions, that she suggested could be contributing to that lack of innovation within the Caribbean, Mottley said it was also the responsibility of governments to create the right environment.

“From political unrest to gun violence to bleaching of skins, the root of so many of our current regional problems boils down, I believe, to issues of identity and lack of cultural confidence,” she said.

Mottley was addressing the virtual opening of the first Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Pivot Event, which was designed to bring together several stakeholders from the region to consider exponential ideas for electric vehicles, digital transformation and tourism.

It is hoped that after the five-day online forum, officials would develop ideas and create a “manifesto of nine moonshots [radically ambitious ideas]” for the region.

Prime Minister Mottley told the gathering that the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the tourism dependent economies mean “the time is now for regional governments to develop and implement disruptive and forward-thinking programme concepts, policies and platforms that fast-track the development of a Caribbean technology economy”.

“At the core of this transformation must be the suitable maximisation of our most highly assets – our people, our ideas, our geography, our climate and our culture”.

“It is only when we increase our cultural confidence, thus maximising the power of our creative imagination, that we will be able to build technologies that unlock our region’s full potential,” she added.

The Barbadian leader said ocean economy, quality production and high value manufacturing, and research and development were some of the areas that the region had the advantage of capitalising on through the expansion of technology.

She argued that while the Caribbean had done a commendable job coming out of colonialism and was responsible for producing some of the world’s greats across several sectors, a lack of support for development was also a hiccup in the region’s quest to be a leader in innovation.

Stating that the region was in a period of resilience and smart investment to secure its future, Mottley said: “This natural cycle of development, of maturing and of overcoming difficult periods, cannot be successfully achieved without first addressing some hard truths.

“The hard truth is that the Caribbean has not been, regrettably, in the business of moonshot sufficiently. Our region, in an age of rapid and bold digital innovation globally, has been slow to digitise and timid to innovate; not all, but not across the scale.

“Our governments, our financial institutions, our schools, our churches and our agencies have been regrettably too hostile to risk and resistant to new actions and new ideas. But why? After all, this is the region that produced [many greats],” the Prime Minister added.

Noting that identity issues were “reversible character flaws” and the COVID-19 pandemic was a surmountable challenge, Mottley said she believed true prosperity and transformation from Caribbean technologies were possible.

“We must have the cultural confidence to develop technologies of our own kind, on a timeline that plays to our strengths and captures the imagination of our own people. We must become a developer of ideas and technologies that allow us to overcome the everyday disadvantages of being a small island developing state,” she said.

Mottley added that she was confident technological advancements in the region would “allow us to overcome our small population, our small economy, our vulnerability to natural disasters and our very difficult history of slavery and colonialism” and other challenges, including high levels of chronic non-communicable diseases and high risk from climatic events.

The Prime Minister stressed that the region continued to be “a very good place” to live, adding that residents should be proud of the stable political systems, universal health care, and freedom of choice and social partnerships.

During the crowdsourcing phase of the Pivot Event search, several winners were selected after individuals from across the world submitted their moonshots for the three industries identified.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb )