BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Grenada’s Prime Minister, Dickon Mitchell, calls for establishing a regional social security fund, noting the number of social security schemes across the region.
Speaking to the business community here, Mitchell, the fund was necessary given that the schemes around the Caribbean are under strain.
Mitchell, who arrived here on Thursday as part of a series of promotional activities organized by the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) marking the InterCaribbean Airways’ inaugural ATR 42-500 service on the Grenada to Barbados route, said it is essential discussions are held on creating a regional social security net, with funds that can be utilized to create more employment opportunities for our people.
“I heard that Barbados’ National Insurance Scheme has had significant challenges. It is not just Barbados. It is every single NIS fund within the region.
“In Antigua, if you go sometimes, they say you ‘come back next week.’ In Grenada, we are beginning to make significant adjustments to ensure the fund itself isn’t bankrupt in 10 years. It amazes me that we have all these individual funds and have not consolidated as a region to get more bang for our buck.
“We can have the University of the West Indies. We can have the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States), a single currency, and a central bank. It blows my mind that after 30-40 years, we do not have a regional social security fund that gives us the advantages and the ability to invest back within the region in industries that create more employment,| Mitchell said.
“Essentially, funds are driven exclusively by income from employers and employees,” he said, announcing that he is to meet with the President of Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Dr. Hyginus ‘Gene’ Leon, to discuss the social security fund, as well as on the US$50 billion in liquidity sitting in regional banks.
“It’s not that there isn’t cash or capital available, the question is how we unlock it, and we can only unlock it by taking a regional approach to the challenges we face,” he added.
Mitchell also spoke on the challenges of inter-regional travel and urged other CARICOM leaders to invest in Inter-Caribbean Airways.
“This is the starting point for CARICOM coming out of coronavirus (COVID). We no doubt, as small islands, have challenges, but our success depends on us,” he said.
He told the business leaders that the region’s education system does not match the reality of Caribbean islands since it does not even consider our ocean space. He stressed that basic skills like swimming and diving should be taught as these can help create employment opportunities.
“A lot of scuba shops, for example, are not owned by Grenadians or Caribbean people but by people from North America and Europe, and these jobs are taken because our education system is not geared to our reality,” Mitchell said.
and then 