FREEPORT, G.B. – Minister for Grand Bahama, and Member of Parliament for the Pine-ridge Constituency, Dr. Michael Darville on Friday encouraged industry partners and other businesses on Grand Bahama to continue to lend their support to the training and development of persons on Grand Bahama, particularly the youth.
Mr. Darville was addressing a number of executives from the industrial sector inclusive of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, BORCO and others attending a luncheon sponsored by the Total Educational Centre on Grand Bahama.
Applauding TEC founder and president Fred A. Delancy for his efforts in the training of young people, Dr. Darville informed that the Government of The Bahamas under the leadership of Prime Minister Perry Gladstone Christie “realises that the future of our work force evolves around training and training, and training and it goes on to infinity.
“In order for us in Grand Bahama to begin to redirect and begin to restructure our tourism and industrial centre, we need to look at our young people, and for those who have been displaced, to start the process of training and re-training.
“And if you look at our charter for governance, you would realise that the Progressive Liberal Party is committed to doubling the investment in education,” he said.
He told the gathering that when they talked about doubling the investment in education, many were under the impression that it was the total budget being doubled.
“We did not say the budget, we said the investment,” he explained.
The Grand Bahama resident pointed out that on being named the Minister for Grand Bahama “I moved swiftly to meet the industrial partners because we realise that in order for us to accomplish this, we must partner with you.”
He pointed out that over the past five years, in which Grand Bahama experienced an economic crisis, already they are hearing in the business community two possible models for Grand Bahama in the way forward.
He said there has been talk questioning doing away with the tourism sector and focus on industry; or should the thrust in the industrial sector be combined with tourism.
Mr. Darville said these are the debates that are out in the public domain. He also noted that the majority of people who are presently unemployed are in the tourism sector.
The new minister said if it were not for the industrial sector of Grand Bahama, it would have been difficult for the people to ride out the storms of recent years.
“The Progressive Liberal Party understands exactly the importance of industry on Grand Bahama and we realise that in order to begin to equip our workforce with the tools that are necessary, we must partner with industry to find out exactly where these key jobs are and how do we translate those key jobs into employment for young Bahamians. It can only happen through training.
“So in the first few days of being Minister for Grand Bahama, I immediately contacted many of the industrial trainers and industrial players on Grand Bahama to begin to lay down the vision and what we intend to accomplish in the next five years,” he stated.
The Minister noted that during the recent election campaign there was much noise in the market concerning politics.
“But let me assure you here today that politics and policies are two different things. We must be able to separate politics from policies. And, the policies that I am talking about here today, revolves around training a new generation for the future.
“It supersedes politics, because political organisations come and go but that plan for the future of Grand Bahama must go on,” he stated.
He went on to assure all that the Government of The Bahamas “is committed to training and over the months and years in this term in office you will begin to see our plan unfold.
“Our plans will begin to unfold with private institutions like Total Education as well as public institutions like BTVI. We are talking about the College of The Bahamas and we are even talking about the possibility of other institutions coming into Grand Bahama.
“We are asking the industrial community to partner with us. For years you have been good to us. For years you have contributed to Mr. Delancy and his dream to get young people back to work.
“Mr. Delancy’s programme is a unique programme. We are looking at other programmes where we begin to attract our brightest students so that they can be trained in technical fields with sub-specialties, even to the point were we begin to export labour.
“We have the ability, we have the passion; we have the expertise on the island and throughout The Bahamas to make it happen. We now have the political will to do it! We now have the Ministry of Grand Bahama that will be an advocate to ensure that it happens.
“I am excited about the future, I am excited about where we are planning to go, and I am pleased to see that the industrial partners in Grand Bahama are buying into our message and allowing us to achieve this necessary goal to train and retrain our work force here in Grand Bahama,” he said.
By SIMON LEWIS
Bahamas Information Services
