Introduction
Labor is at the center of economic development in terms of laborers
providing services as well as benefiting from what they produce.
With increased globalization and the need for countries to be competitive,
much emphasis is placed on the role of labor in increasing growth and promoting
economic development. The Caribbean is an area of the world where
this subject is of great importance, especially at a time when the small
nations states are looking at ways to diversity their economies and increase
their competitiveness in the global economy.
Informatics Labor in the Caribbean
The World Bank report "Information Service Exports for the English-speaking
Caribbean" found that between 20,000 and 30,000 jobs from the U.S. could
be outsourced to the region. The main reasons are the highly trained/literate
work force, a natural affinity for the US market, lower wages and a decent
telecommunications and transportation structure. (1)
I believe SVG, and the other OECS countries, should aggressively seek to
capture a large part of this market. At present, the majority of the informatics
industry lies in Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados.
SVG boast a high literacy rate (90%) as do the other islands (see Windward
Island Comparison for economic and demographic data) However,
it has suffered from a fair amount of "brain drain" of those individuals
who have gone away to University for advanced degree and find better opportunities
in Europe or North American. Therefore, the majority of IT
jobs that could be outsourced to the region would be data entry, call center
operations, claims conversion etc. (those processes that do not require
a high amount of technical skills)
Informatics Labor in SVG
According to Claude Leach form DEVCO (the Development Corporation of
St. Vincent and the Grenadines) there is a very small niche market in SVG
in terms of informatics labor. Although unofficial reports place
unemployment at close to 40%, the type of labor needed for the informatics
industry is skilled and literate and therefore, there would be a much smaller
available pool of labor to choose from. Mr. Leach estimates
that of the the the present size of the labor pool in SVG is approximately
40,000 and thinks that of that number approximately 2500 could be used
in the informatics industry. This leads him to believe that SVG has
enough capacity to satisfy the needs of approximately 10 to 12 small companies.(2)
|
