Beckles: UWI Has Critical Role To Play In Caribbean Economies

St Kitts and Nevis (WINN): University of the West Indies Vice Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles is banking on a strategic plan for the region’s economies and premier educational institution in this age of globalization.

He said meetings were held with international organizations like the IMF and the World Bank to discuss the macro economic outlook and the sustainable development in the Caribbean.

“We met with all of these organizations to share with them our thinking and to hear from them how they are looking at the prospect for the Caribbean economy going forward. I was asked to participate in the dissemination of the recent UNDP Caribbean Human Development Report 2016 that focuses for the first time in a very specific way on the inhibiting factors in Caribbean development. That report focused on two very important messages, that one of the most important reasons for the drive and the development of the Caribbean economy is the fundamental, deep seated structural inequality in our economies and societies. There are economic models that can enable you to measure the wastage associated with inequality. Our economies and societies are classified as among some of the most unequal in the world and that has to do with our historical origins and how our system has evolved, this is now being targeted as one of the persistent poverty in the Caribbean. It also accounts for circumstances such as what we’ve had in Trinidad and Tobago when in the last ten years, the economy of Trinidad and Tobago was growing significantly but while the economy was growing and recording significant levels of growth, the indices showed that poverty was increasing at the same time.”

While delivering the Vice Chancellor’s report to the University Council at the Cave Hill Campus, Sir Hilary said it was important to understand an economic structure that is growing while poverty is increasing. Read more

Source: winnfm.com