Experts call for manpower, policy fixes to boost economy

Three economic and business experts have said Barbados needs to tackle manpower shortages and skills gaps to achieve inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

Central Bank Governor Dr Kevin Greenidge, the bank’s fourth governor Winston Cox, and Dr Trisha Tannis, chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA) on Wednesday evening appeared in a panel discussion hosted by the Central Bank on Achieving Long-Term Inclusive and Sustainable Growth.

The experts highlighted the urgency of establishing robust policy frameworks, mobilising investment, and fostering social cohesion to ensure resilience and prosperity for all citizens. Dr Greenidge said the country needs to strike a balance between economic progress, social equity, and environmental preservation. He outlined a target growth rate of five per cent for the local economy over the medium term, asserting that citizens should benefit from economic advancement without compromising environmental resilience.

“Getting inclusive growth and sustainable growth means getting the necessary investment to be able to build up our resilience, both in terms of our infrastructure, in terms of our buffers, so that when that shock comes, we can recover,” the governor said. “We say that under the BERT [Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation] programme, we need the government to step up to roughly five per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, and the government needs to do that by carefully managing its fiscal position, and we need the private sector to step up and double its investment to about $2 billion annually.

“If we can get that and then diversify within the context of the economy, for me what that means is diversifying within tourism, but at the same time building linkages between tourism and all the other sectors and developing the newer industries, the creative industries, the shift of renewable energy and greening the economy.”

Addressing concerns about manpower and skills development, the governor highlighted the persistent skills gap in key sectors such as construction and tourism. He stressed the importance of matching skills training with industry needs and acknowledged the role of immigration in addressing population challenges and skill shortages.

“We’ve invested and continue to invest quite a bit in terms of training and educating persons, but there still remains a skills gap. We at the Bank often meet with persons in the industry. We’ve met recently with mostly construction persons. We’ve met with many tourism players and persons actively involved. One of the sentiments that come through is that there is, even with all that we have going on, a need to train and retrain and improve the skills between what is needed and what is currently being produced. And so that skills gap has to be matched,” he said.

“However, in addition to that, one of the main drivers of economic growth is population and the size of the population. Look across any country, Singapore, roughly the same size, but three-point-something million I think it is compared to our numbers. And there is nothing wrong with importing and exporting labour in both directions. That is part of the development.”

Cox, now the central bank’s seventh Distinguished Visiting Fellow, echoed Dr Greenidge’s sentiments, identifying manpower shortage and investment as major hurdles to sustainable growth. 

He stressed the importance of having a robust policy framework to ensure equitable distribution of growth benefits and targeted support for marginalised populations.

“We need an appropriate policy framework, and it is within that policy framework that our entrepreneurial class will discern opportunities and seize those opportunities,” he said. 

“I think we have demonstrated over five or six decades that we are quite capable of providing a suitable and attractive tourism product. Tourism has been a rather stable part of a stable sector in our economy over that period of time. We are aware, of course, of the impact of pandemics, but we also suffer downturns in tourism when the economies from which our visitors arrive suffer from recession.

“So, while diversification is important, over and above that really is the importance of the policy framework which will unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of Barbadians…. I think that there are enough people in Barbados with skill sets who are capable of stepping up to the plate.”

The former governor called for collaborative efforts between the government and the private sector to harness opportunities for economic expansion while addressing social disparities.

His sentiments were shared by Tannis who pointed to the need for economic resilience and diversification, particularly considering vulnerabilities exposed by external shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The private sector leader also underscored the imperative of economic resilience and diversification, particularly in light of vulnerabilities exposed by external shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s no doubt that we are on the right track, and I think we have to be very mature in our dialogue and in our commentary about it. We have seen 11 consecutive quarters of growth. We are seeing unemployment a bit below the 22-year average, and do we want it to be lower? Of course, we do. Is that a result of growth investment? Yes, it is. 

“And we do see that the pandemic has actually had a fairly impacting result on our economy, and one that we need to carefully learn from. We are four years since, and we have been buffered by not just the pandemic but all sorts of climate-related shocks which have impeded and limited our growth to some degree. But now that we hopefully have these things in the rear-view mirror, we do need to make sure that should we
walk this way again, that we are in a far better position not to completely buckle, as our economy did in the last three years,” she said.

The BPSA head emphasised the need to pivot towards new industries while maintaining the momentum in the tourism sector, urging a strategic approach to attract both domestic and foreign investment.

“We certainly have to critically consider the contribution of our educational system towards that capacity building and towards that policy framework. Now that may be a medium to long-term solution, but in the short term we do have tremendous capacity in our tertiary education and institutions, and we really do need to tap into the young brilliant minds that are being formed and shaped there.

“As it relates to more so the demographic challenge that we’re having, we do know that we have an immigration policy rework that we’re currently looking at, and we’re shortly going to see how that rolls out. But it would be a shame, having invested over $100 million each year in our education system, to then have to continually resort to importing labour in the long term.” 

(RG)