E-commerce in The Bahamas is not being explored to a satisfactory level in my opinion. Although the Bahamian society is more advance than many others as it relates to technology and Internet access, the people thereof generally- have not caught on to the immense potentials of online commerce.
Indeed- many sectors like real estate, tourism, banking and others are making good strides in developing and marketing their products online. But, there remain lots of room for improvement and advancement- especially as it concerns the building of small businesses.
Far too much school leavers are graduating with the concept of working for someone, and the job market continues to be saturated with new applicants on an ongoing and systematic basis as a consequence.
The system is not adapting effectively to the trends in the global market place, nor is it prepared for radical changes geared toward tackling unemployment, and cultural stagnation. It is too dependent on foreign investments, imports, and the tourism industry.
The encouragement, and development of an e-commerce industry in the Bahamas will no doubt reverse the trend of economic dependency, and support citizens to be their own bosses.
The way we educate our children needs to be seriously evaluated, as it is not in line with changes in the local, regional and global flow. I believe that the focus should be on learning job, and entrepreneurial skills from primary school to graduation.
Too many students are finishing school with little or no job ability. Itﾴs because we are not training them to be competent, and ready to make money for their survival.
There is no reasonable rationale as to why all of our children cannot be career ready on graduation day- especially in the advent of the computer and Internet age. The potential is huge for full employment, and the creation of a new commercial class in the Bahamas, and throughout the region and world for that matter.
E-commerce is pivotal to the vision of a new economy and way of thinking in the Bahamas. There is no shortage of talk in that regard; the problem is action on the part of elected officials who know that it is their role to pave the way.
And those of us, who are familiar with network marketing on the World Wide Web, have our part to play also. It is hoped that we could jointly get our act together- and work towards a culture of financial independence and coherency with the Net as our new weapon to individual and collective opulence in the Bahamas.
Dennis Dames
