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| Minister of Trade in Nevis the Hon. Hensley Daniel |
CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (May 29, 2007) -- Minister of Trade in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) the Hon. Hensley Daniel is of the view that a new enterprise culture should be nurtured in St. Kitts and Nevis.
He said at present there was a psychological block to enterprise development among many local people, particularly black people, which must be changed 200 years after slavery.
Mr. Daniel made the comment while he delivered the keynote address at the Foundation for National Developments (FND) 22nd Annual General Meeting in Basseterre on May 23, 2007.
"It [the psychological block] is marked by the fear of failure and sense of lack of readiness from the financial agencies. We need to give our people some more time to succeed&The society is too hard on business to succeed.
"If we are to move forward, we cannot continue to have an education system that is at variance with the demands of business, at variance with the demand of globalisation. The system must produce the knowledge workers who can use their knowledge to create wealth," he said.
He said that many people who were in business many years ago were no longer in business and had moved from owners to workers. That the business sector was too narrow and concentrated largely on trading; there was need to broaden the range and scope of business; that there was a failure to apply sound business principals; there was too much of a lasses faire attitude to business and there was a need for strategic planning and visioning for the next 15-20 years.
According to Mr. Daniel, there was the need for more young people younger than 30 years to get started in business; that people with degrees in Accounting and Business Management were trained to look for work rather than to create wealth.
He regarded work ethic in the Federation as being poor which had resulted in low productivity; that there was too little attention paid to quality, consistency, consumer care and teamwork; that the management worker relationship was poor which resulted in malicious compliance on the part of workers (they worked because they has a few bills to pay and they complied because of the sanctions).~~Adz:Right~~
The Trade Minister said he shared the view of Mr. Courtney Blackman, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados that in the Caribbean, education was used too much in the same way as women used cosmetics, for adornment rather than to add value and create wealth as is done in America.
"There are people with as many degrees as a thermometer but have not been taught to create wealth. The private sector and government must work together to increase the number of students who succeed in education. There must be an enterprise component in every subject taught. If you major in English and Literature, you must write short stories," he said.
Mr. Daniel was of the view that the development of business must no longer be left to chance and some of the Federations bright students should be targeted to pursue business studies.
He said that the selected students should be pointed to opportunities and their hands should be held in order to guide them through an incubation period to build their confidence.
"That is what we are doing in Nevis by the introduction of a Youth Enterprise Scheme (training in business management, internships and the provision of funding). We have also taken the decision to re-classify the business and give priority to those in tourism and manufacturing which can add value," he said.
Notwithstanding, Mr. Daniel said the new NIA felt the need to end subsidies and a parasitic approach to business development and would not continue to subsidise the rich who simply wanted to expand their businesses.
At the ethical level, Mr. Daniel noted that it was important to nurture a set of values marked by honesty, decency, discipline and self respect. "Workers have to be trained to behave like owners and we have to do away with this 8am - 4pm from society. We have to help our people to work longer and smarter," he said and added that partnerships had to be nurtured to replace the individual sole trader.
