BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PRIME MINISTER of St. Kitts and Nevis the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris has called on young people in the Caribbean to adopt a change in mind-set and create new industries for themselves.
Dr. Harris was at the time speaking as the Chairman at the closing of the 45th Meeting of the Caribbean Development Bank held at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort following a discussion on the high levels of youth unemployment.
"I want to encourage the young people who are here that learning is good. I would so far to say learning is better than silver and gold because when I was small I was taught that."
He indicated that a new course of action is needed with the young people making a way for themselves.
"We want them now to be good thinkers and to be thinking not so much somebody providing them with a job, but creating a job for themselves. That is part of the new mind-set because we have seen that the governments have maxed out and can't do more. And the private sector, traditional in its orientation, is not creating the jobs that we want, and the banking system as we know is not responding to your needs."
Dr. Harris indicated that the current Caribbean economy has no sign of job growth with the existing industries, and he challenged the youth to use their creativity and establish new industries to suit their qualifications.
"You earned the right to be the best that you want to be and, in these new areas, if you were to apply your creativity and industry you are going to create new areas, new industries from which the new growth will come.
"From all that we have learnt and heard about the sub-optimal performance of our economies, it is true to say what we have now will only take us so far and no more. What we have now, over the last 30 years, have not excited the growth that delivered the jobs to you and we would be somewhat delusional to expect that we will have that kind of transformation in the medium term in some of these traditional industries."
