Skills a plus for region

With an extremely skilled workforce, the Caribbean is more competitive than it has ever been.

That is the view of US Assistant Secretary of State, Brian Nichols, who said the US and the region continued to have strong relations and obvious similarities with regards to goals and policy implementation.

Nichols made the comments while speaking during a Caribbean Relations Town Hall Conversation today hosted by the University of the West Indies’, Cave Hill Campus Faculty of Social Sciences at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination.

“Particularly in the English-speaking Caribbean it is a well-educated region, it has a workforce that can take on high-skilled challenges. It has a workforce that can engage in the 21st century services sector building on years’ of experience in financial services, insurance, tourism and in a future where, as we have seen during the pandemic, mobility plays a bigger role…You can work from anywhere and that makes this region much more competitive than it has ever been,” Nichols said.

He pointed to the fact that both the US and the Caribbean were on the same page when it came to matters of democratic governance, climate change and economic development.

He lauded Prime Minister Mia Mottley for the leadership she had shown in lobbying for and fighting for the rights of not only Barbados, but the Caribbean and other small island developing states (SIDS).

Nichols said Mottley had impressed with her passion and leadership, especially at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow earlier this year. He said her voice and presence on the international stage had led to her being considered one of the 100 most influential people in 2022 by Times magazine.

“We support the initiatives and the ideas that Caribbean nations put forward. In particular, the leadership that Prime Minister Mia Mottley has shown on the issue of climate change for example, will really capture enormous attention in the United States,” Nichols said.

Nichols also commended Barbados for what he described as having a “strong example” of strong democratic traditions. (RB)