By Ricardo Blackman From Caribbean Digital Network

“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”

So says Bill Gates, tech visionary, business trailblazer and philanthropist, who changed the world while leading Microsoft to dizzying success.

Caribbean decision-makers would do well to at least make a mental note of this Bill Gates assertion.

There’s an uncharacteristic and worrying restlessness, hopelessness and anger that pervades the region at the moment that is impacting its long-standing global image as a destination for unimpeded relaxation.

And what’s more worrying is that this restlessness and hopelessness has become a growing feature of life among many of the region’s young people who will want to challenge Desmond Tutu’s theory that “hope is being able to see that there is light, despite all the darkness.”

From where we sit at the CDN Desk, the problem is twofold:

Growing levels of unemployment among the region’s young people
Foreign investment policies which tend not to empower the people of the region
Hit by the global recession of 2008/2009, many Caribbean countries, already reeling from poverty and high debt to GDP ratios, have sunken deeper into economic decline, with a regional average of zero economic growth in 2010. Joblessness, and hopelessness, coupled with a mismatch between workplace requirements and school curricula, have not only pushed some 85% of the region’s youth to see migration to more developed countries as an attractive option, but has driven an increasing number of young people to a life of deviant behavior and crime.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in one of its most recent assessments, described the unemployment rate among young people in the Caribbean as “alarming”.

“In some countries, the youth unemployment rate is as high as 40%. In others, the average is around 25%. The profile of unemployed youth is very much now becoming a situation of joblessness among graduates or trained persons from university, so that is an alarming situation.”

“We would have hoped that with the acquisition of skills, there would have been the kind of return of human capital resulting from university training, but we are not getting the proportionate kinds of returns to human capital and that is something that is very concerning for the region.”

“It either means that that the training is not meeting the needs of the job market, or that there is something wrong with the job market itself.”

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) also observed recently youth unemployment rates in the region are among the highest in the world. In a study “Youth Are Our Future,The Imperatives of Youth Employment For Sustainable Development”, it was stated, among other things, that nearly 25% of youth in countries for which statistics were available, were unemployed. These rates, the study noted, are among the highest in the world.

Data for eight (8) Caribbean countries showed that only in Trinidad and Tobago did youth unemployment rates fall below the world average, and that was during the 2006 to 2010 period. Between 1991 and 2012, all other Caribbean countries had a youth unemployment rate above the world average.

The regional countries with the highest persistent youth unemployment were Guyana and Suriname which, since 2000, have consistently been above 30%, with the rate in Guyana hovering around 40% since this time. The report noted, however, that total unemployment rates in Guyana were also persistently high. Most countries had a relatively consistent youth unemployment rate over this period, but The Bahamas, Barbados and to some degree, Belize, demonstrated a spike in youth unemployment since 2007, a trend which has continued.

In Jamaica, data from the Statistical Institute in 2013, indicated that unemployment among youth (aged 14-24) had risen to some 38.5% from 34.1% in 2012. This, the Institute said, was “socially unsustainable”. “There is a direct link between crime and unemployment, said the Institute, and this discourages production and investment.”

In Barbados, there is also a growing school of thought that there is a link between the recent upsurge in violent crime among the country’s youth and the declining economy. This criminal activity among the youth is also being attributed to what some observers describe as the “repeated failure of the leadership of the country to set good examples to be emulated by its younger citizens.” Thus the concept of two (2) Barbados’.

Leading by example, should, indeed be a norm for the decision-makers of the region. For if we are to address the indifference that is creeping into the attitudes of Caribbean youth, no amount of rhetoric will on its own impact the restless youth of the region, some of whom seem to have no regard for human life.

On the other hand, there is a pressing need for more informed and customized investment in human capital development, to ensure the required training of graduates for the job market. In this connection, CDN is recommending the establishment of a regional job market task force which meets with the University of the West Indies (UWI) on a structured basis, to work with the institution in designing curricula that better meets the developmental needs of the region.

It is the view of CDN that the mechanics of such a structure should pose no serious challenges as the regional task force which we envisage would be drawn mainly from the Chambers of Commerce and NGOs from across the region. There is growing concern about the ROI factor of continued state funding of tertiary education in the Caribbean, particularly in the context of the extent to which such education is meeting the needs of the region.

ILOIt is worthy of note that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has opined that six of ten jobs available to young people in Latin America and the Caribbean are in the informal sector: jobs of poor quality, low productivity and offering low wages, meaning that youth are lacking stability and career prospects, social protection and access to basic labour rights.

If hope is to be restored to the restless youth of the Caribbean, they are deserving of a brighter future in which there is at least a glimmer of light, despite the” darkness” to which Desmond Tutu alluded.

While on the topic of “darkness and light”, we come naturally it would seem to the question of foreign investment in the context of people empowerment in the Caribbean and the emergence on the regional horizon of a Canadian energy services company, Emera Inc (Emera).

CDN’s research indicates that in December, 2010, Emera Inc, the largest shareholder in Light & Power Holdings Company (LPH) made an offer to acquire any and all outstanding common shares of LPH. Light & Power Holdings Company, through its subsidiaries, Barbados Light & Power (BL&P) and Dominica Electricity Services (DOMLEC), generates, distributes and supplies electricity in Barbados and Dominica. The company generates electricity from diesel, natural gas, hydroelectric power plants, solar photovoltaic, and geothermal sources.

Subsequent to the Emera offer to acquire the outstanding common shares of LPH, the LPH Board publicly notified shareholders of Emera’s bid and also advised shareholders against taking any action unless advised by the Board.

Shortly after, the Board advised that the shareholders sell to Emera at their bidding price. The response from shareholders was overwhelming and by March, 2011, Emera had gained a controlling interest in LPH after successfully acquiring 79.6% of the company’s shares. With that transaction, ownership of LPH was effectively transferred outside Barbados for the first time in many years of its century long existence. Even though LPH is regulated by the local Fair Trading Commission, and a government institution, the National Insurance Scheme is still a large shareholder, though in a diminished capacity, after divesting half of its shares to Emera. CDN is of the view that that historic change in ownership may yet have national implications for Barbados and warrants an evaluation.

What are the implications for the local business environment for conducting takeovers in Barbados and the Caribbean? What are the implications for the empowerment of the indigenous people of the Caribbean?

Light and Power Holdings is the sole supplier of electricity in Barbados. The country’s economic performance, attractiveness to investors and even its citizens’ standard of living, depend on the utility pro viding a reliable and cost-effective service. Put simply, with the flick of an “Emera switch” , Barbados can be thrown into darkness.

This evaluation must also take into account, the fact that Emera, by virtue of LPH’s acquisition of 52% interest in Dominica Electricity Services, Dominica’s sole electricity provider, also has a controlling interest in DOMLEC. LPH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emera. The Dominica Social Security Scheme owns 21% of DOMLEC with the remaining 27% broadly held by other investors.

Emera also owns some 80.4 per cent of the shares of Grand Bahama company and 19% of the shares in St. Lucia Electricity Services (LUCELEC).

CDN’s research also indicates that Emera is one of the companies with which the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines will be partnering to implement its planned geothermal energy project which is scheduled for start up in 2018.

So much for the Emera company structure and growing presence in the Caribbean but what does this all say for the empowerment of Caribbean people? What legislative machinery is there in place to ensure, for example, that majority ownership of key assets such as Barbados Light & Power and Dominica Electricity Services remains in the hands of indigenous people of our various countries?

The “horse may have already bolted” in the cases of Barbados, The Bahamas and Dominica, but it should be very interesting to see how the administration of Prime Minister, Dr. Kenny Anthony in St. Lucia approaches Emera’s share ownership of LUCELEC. Will the current 19% now be increased to at least 52%? Will the government of St. Lucia, in the interim, take the lead among regional governments, in undertaking a comprehensive review and overhaul of its foreign investment policy, to ensure that control (by way of ownership) of key assets in St. Lucia, remains in the hands of the people of St. Lucia?

Of equal interest will be the approach of the administration of Dr. Ralph Gonzalves in St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the “participation” of “partnering” with private investors in that country’s National Geothermal Project.

Indeed, it’s not too late for the trio of Stuart, Christie and Skerritt to move to ensure that future control of key assets remains in the hands of the people of their respective countries , committed, as they must be, to the economic empowerment of the citizens who elected them to office.

CDN is thus saying that even with the high debt to GDP ratios which characterize Caribbean economies at this time, there is room for a comprehensive foreign investment policy overhaul, which does not apply only to issues such as the spread of the Emera wings across the region, but also to the Citizenship by Investment Programme, (CIP) in which huge plots of prime beach front Caribbean property is changing hands day after day in exchange for a new Passport.

We are surprised that this matter was apparently not on the agenda of the recent Heads of Government Conference in Barbados.

IMAGES:
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president_Ralph_Gonsalves Dr. Ralph Gonzalves
Dr. Kenny Anthony
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For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbeandigitalnetwork.com/rumblings-of-growing-discontent-and-hopelessness-in-the-caribbean/