Source: Barbados Today
Article by Marlon Madden
President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Dr. Gene Leon is calling for urgent improvement in the region’s air, sea and land infrastructure in order to maximise economic development.
He issued the call while pointing to the need for increased investment in and development of the region’s digital infrastructure and acknowledging that the development needed would require both public and private sector involvement.
“As a matter of urgency, the region must improve infrastructure for air, marine, and road transportation to maximise opportunities for production as well as global and intra-regional trade in goods and services. Governments cannot do it [alone], we need partnerships because if it is done it will redound to the benefit of all,” said Leon.
“Air and sea transportation are vital for creating and sustaining business activities through the movement of people, goods, and services intra-regionally and between the region and extra-regional destinations. Our transportation network in the region is still quite fragmented and there is a need to build greater complementarity between the air, sea, and land infrastructure to support our development thrust,” he said.
The president of the Barbados-based financial institution, which commissioned a study on regional transportation several years ago, said one immediate priority for the region should be a logistics plan.
“An immediate priority for all of us who have a stake in the development, should be the design for the wider Central America/CARICOM region of a master integrated logistics network plan to provide trading routes to North and South America, eastward to Europe and Africa, and westward to Asia and Australasia,” said Leon.
He made the suggestion while addressing the recent launch of the Business and Management Research Think Tank (BMRTT) and the Business Roundtable Forum at the Cave Hill School of Business and Management (CHSBM).
The BMRTT is an agreement between the CHSBM and the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA) and the Business Roundtable Forum is an agreement between the CHSBM and the Barbados Chamber and Commerce and Industry (BCCI).
The deals between the learning institution and the business community are designed to guide research and innovation that can influence the business environment and lead to the reform of industries.
Leon said in addition to the lack of transportation connectivity, the Caribbean’s use of technology was also lacking. This, he suggested, was hampering the region’s chances of keeping up with the changing pace of communication.
“Based on our own research at CDB, several countries in our region are not sufficiently well-positioned to be competitive in a digital future world and would require investments in cutting-edge infrastructure among other enablers,” said Leon.
“Seized of the fact that digital connectivity is the backbone of 21st-century communication, commerce, and most other economic activities, we have proposed the deployment of a secure, zero-divide regional digital network grid, to facilitate enhanced services in trade, education, health, commerce, and government service delivery by 2035,” he said.
“The development of a joint action plan that includes appropriate policy, regulatory and security frameworks, upgrade of information technology infrastructure, and the wider access of broadband services at both national and regional levels and across private and public sectors, will be urgently needed to achieve this regional digital grid by the stated timeline,” he said.
He also called for greater “cultural connectivity” throughout the region, adding this could be achieved through languages.
“Paradoxically, this is the glue to making physical and digital connectivity a tangible reality. Connectivity through trade in goods and services is an outcome of our cultural connectivity. I believe that the singular catalyst for this to happen is making the region a single multilingual space,” said Leon.
“Broadly, that translates to requiring conversational fluency and preferably certification in each of the four languages spoken in the region by the time of secondary school graduation. Further, at the tertiary level, each professional training programme or university degree should have an instruction element in at least two languages . . . It won’t be overnight, but imagine where we can be in 10 years,” he said.