Why not take a page out of Haiti’s book?

Apr 06, 2014 News

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By Dwijendra Rooplall
Even though Haiti is classified as the least economically developed country in the region and Guyana is one step ahead, according to a UN report, on placement, one is taken aback by the entrepreneurship and resourcefulness of that island’s people who, despite their obvious economic limitations, are still forging ahead with policies and mechanisms that will no doubt benefit their economy in the long run.
One such example is the fact that Haiti, while poor, is now making, rather assembling

products such as electronic tablets called ‘Surtab’  with its meaning suggesting reliability.  A Reuters article captioned “impoverished Haiti manufacturing its own tablet” reflected the thoughts of company workers who attested to the pleasurable feeling of working in a high-skilled environment in addition to actually being employed.
One of the biggest problems these initiatives solve is that it provides gainful employment for those otherwise unemployed, something that rings home here in Guyana. Even though we are economically ahead of Haiti, it can be argued that not much is being done to address the issue of job saturation within our economy.
The Budget for 2014 which was presented by the Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, speaks to the economic provisions of a lot of things, but where employment is concerned there aren’t any laid-out policies beyond the proliferation of programmes geared towards training persons vocationally as well as academically.  These observations were also expressed by the combined opposition during this week’s debate presentations on the budget in the National Assembly.
Beyond the proliferation of call centres, there aren’t many other avenues that can gainfully absorb the unemployed in Guyana which is glaringly skewed towards the youth. That is why, even though we graduate thousands of students every year at the university level, we see a mass exodus of skilled labour to other neighbouring and faraway countries where the opportunity for job sustainability is sufficient.
It would be unfair to suggest that the problem of unemployment must be tackled only by government, when we have a glaring example right in front of us that speaks to the private sector playing an imperative role in tackling this issue.
The Surtab project was funded, according to Reuters online, “With $200,000 in start-up funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and using imported Asian components, the factory produces three models all with 7-inch (18-cm) screens that run on Google Inc’s Android operation system. They range from a simple Wi-Fi tablet with 512 megabytes of RAM for about $100, to a 3G model with 2-gigabytes of memory for $285[US].”
What is needed is entrepreneurial foresight within the private sector to see the incumbent benefits that establishing a similar company in Guyana can bring and the aid of the government in making sure that the correct legislative and business protocols are put in place and observed.
While the Surtab Company in Haiti is providing employment to a small number of 40 persons, the economic and social spin-off is what is to be taken away from this initiative. Reuters in its article outlined that the persons directly involved with the company already want to start diversifying into other areas of technological production. This signals the prospect of expansion and further employment opportunities should that be materialized.
Additionally “Surtab’s investors are looking to build an applied science graduate school, as well as looping in Haiti’s skilled arts and crafts industry to help with design.” Another example of the spin-offs taking effect.
One finds it quite impressive that a sister Caricom State can embark on a project that is reserved mostly for developed and highly industrialized countries; it shows as has been outlined before that once the enabling environment is created, anything is possible.
There are many who argue that Guyana should stick to what it knows best and that is agriculture, but economically a country is predisposed to enhanced growth when it diversifies from its traditional income producers which in Guyana’s case would be rice, sugar and gold among others.
And, quite frankly, a lot of our youths are attending the local university and doing online courses that are focused on Information and Communication Technology and other job sectors that are totally different from agriculture, so it would most obviously be a position where movement towards technological diversification would be a most welcomed one and would contribute towards negating the brain drain of skilled resources that has been a recurring theme in Guyana for the longest while.

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