As we look in and out of the Caribbean, many interesting developments are taking place that can have significant implications for the future growth and improvement of our small, open and highly vulnerable economies.
Coming immediately to mind is the apparent normalisation of bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States (US) – a development that can potentially result in the lifting of an almost six decade old economic and trade embargo on a relatively small country with very limited resources compared to those of the US.
Despite these evolving developments and their likely impacts on our regional economies, many ongoing challenges remain that we as a serious people must be prepared to tackle head-on in a battle that we must win. After all, the deteriorating state of public finances in some countries, stagnant wages and salaries, rising public debt, lack of real growth, expanding unemployment particularly among our youths, and increasing cost of living are but only some of the issues that must be given top priority in the coming year and beyond.
Therefore, our responses as small island states can either be to accept the status quo and remain in our present depressed conditions for longer than is necessary or determine that we must approach solutions to our problems with a renewed sense of optimism. Logically, this author would settle for nothing less than the latter.
But, clearly, just simply identifying the need for a renewed sense of optimism is one thing.
The fulfilment of such a broad objective is quite another matter.
So, then, how do we as Caribbean countries get to the stage where our people can feel much more comfortable knowing full well that we are on the verge of turning the economic and financial tides around and in our favour?
The answer to that critical question can only be found in a reasoned approach to economic management that puts people and country first.
While the prescriptions are multidimensional and it is virtually impossible to exhaust the alternatives in a column of this nature, there are five vital aspects that ought to be highlighted immediately in no particular order of importance: (1) deliberate policies to attract more direct foreign investments in key sectors and industries such as tourism and renewable energy; (2) strategies to grow and diversify our economies that are sustainable; (3) commitments from our various governments
to cut public expenditure and eliminate wastage; (4) the need to put sustainable programmes in place to assist the poor and vulnerable in our societies; and (5) a strong determination to ease the burden of the middle classes through for example reductions in some taxes, particularly on the direct side.
As simple as these remedies may appear, they do hold great potential for the future transformation of our ailing economies.
Nothing short of deliberate attempts to reconfigure our economic landscapes will generate the kinds of environments that are conducive to a renewed sense of optimism. The ball is therefore evenly in our hands and it is purely up to us as a people to determine our next moves.
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“Nothing short of deliberate attempts to reconfigure our economic landscapes will generate the kinds of environments that are conducive to a renewed sense of optimism.”
