“The technology to bring these ideas to life is ready to go. We simply need a plan in place that clearly outlines our desired economic and social outcomes and all of the steps along the road. For the Bahamas Blockcerts component we have a road map, but we will expand on that as part of the National Blockchain Strategy,” said K. Peter Turnquest, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.  

See below DPM's and IDB representative's remarks/statements.

Minister Foulkes, Mr. Michael Nelson, IDB Representative, Senior Staff from the Public Service and the Inter-American Development Bank, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning.

Today, the Government of The Bahamas will formally enter into a Loan Agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in the amount of Twenty Million ($20,000,000) Dollars for the execution of a vitally important initiative: “Skills for Current and Future Jobs in The Bahamas”.

Consistent with previous loans, the tenor or payment period attached to the Agreement is twenty five years. The interest rate, which is subject to LIBOR, currently stands at 3.06%. The Ministry of Finance in its capacity as the Bahamas’ interlocutor with the Bank has the option, based on interest rate fluctuation in the international market, to request a change in the rate from variable to fixed and vice-versa. This approach allows the Ministry to effectively manage its debt with the IDB.

The overall objective of the loan project aims to increase employability and improve access to quality jobs for Bahamians, especially for youth. This means additional skills training opportunities, particularly in three strategic sectors – maritime, medical services, information technology and telecommunications, and additional apprenticeship programmes. These efforts will be targeted at the unemployed and school leavers. This also means new programmes to promote communication between employers and training providers in terms of the relevant skills needed to promote higher labor market productivity.

Overall, there are three components funded through the loan agreement:

•     An apprenticeship programme
•     An initiative to promote better job matching, and
•     The creation of labour market information systems

The Apprenticeship component is expected to, among other things, expand the ongoing National Training Agency (NTA) pre-apprenticeship initiative to include an additional 1,100 participants. Furthermore, there will be a new training programme for advanced participants. The number of persons expected to be recruited for the advanced one year programme is 1,350. All persons selected to this programme will receive a stipend. I note that stringent measures will be undertaken to ensure that resources are disbursed in accordance with prescribed policies. Moreover, requisite evaluations will be undertaken to determine whether this initiative is progressing satisfactorily to achieve its objective. I am confident that it will, considering the need to enhance the skill set of Bahamians in sectors of the economy that I mentioned earlier. The resources of the loan allocated for the Apprenticeship Programme is approximately Ten Million ($10,000,000) Dollars.

The Civil Works component of this initiative will finance the construction of a 43,500 sq. ft. modernized building, which will serve as a one stop shop to address all matters for job seekers. In addition, the facility is also expected to be outfitted with childcare services or a nursery, to accommodate women who are seeking the services from various support windows in the facility. The amount allocated for this component in the loan is Five Million, Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand ($5,350,000) Dollars.

The amount allocated to the third component – Labour Market Information Systems – is two million, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($2,350,000). I have no doubt this will give rise to the introduction of modernized technology and the application of international best practices to create effective means of uniting all players in the Labour Market. Under this component there is an emphasis on developing robust statistical data and making it more accessible. In other words we will look at the supply side and demand side for labour market information.

Additionally, the flagship initiative under this component is the Government’s adoption of blockchain technology. In fact, I am pleased to announce that in early September, the Ministry of Finance will convene the first meeting of the National Blockchain Strategy Committee to guide the selection and implementation of blockchain initiatives in the public and private sectors. Blockchain, while still in its early stages, is a pivotal technology that is shaping our 21st century futures; indeed, it has already reshaped the future of the financial sector.

As a government, we are intent on being at the forefront of these changes so we can harness the power of technology to facilitate innovation and economic growth in The Bahamas. Similar to the Internet, which allowed small countries to leapfrog into the future, blockchain has the potential to dramatically improve the ease of doing business with the Government, and to create entrepreneurial opportunities for Bahamians. We want to demonstrate what is possible, and to make sure the legal and regulatory framework is in place to unleash opportunities in the private sector.

We still have a long way to go, but our intention is to have a clear roadmap that identifies the opportunities and the reputational risks, and outlines key economic and social performance indicators for overall strategic success. Although this loan is separate, the work is certainly related to our Digital Government/Digital Bahamas transformation efforts, which fall under another IDB funded project.

I do not profess to be an expert in the blockchain space, but I can assure you, the Ministry of Finance is working with experts, talented Bahamians in fact. We are in the process of reaching out to other experts and stakeholders so the Steering Committee can hold its inaugural meeting in September.

Through the work of the Ministry of Labour, we have already laid the foundation of the Committee’s work, with a pre-pilot project funded through an earlier technical cooperation grant. Very soon we will have successful news to share about the completion of the pilot.

As I close, I express gratitude to the staff from the IDB and the technical officers from the Public Service in designing the Skills for Current and Future Jobs project. This project is vitally important considering our expectation that the Bahamian economy will witness healthy economic growth in the near term. We need our workforce to be prepared for the opportunities, and to drive the new wave of growth in the medium and long term.

The stage of implementation is now at hand and will require cohesion among all stakeholders and the same level of intensity and focus that contributed to the programme design. I wish all stakeholders, much success in executing all activities deemed necessary to advancing this programme.

Thank you.
Project Signing

Thursday, July 26, 2018 – 1 p.m. | Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

•         Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. Kindly allow me to adopt the established protocol. I would like to express my thanks to Deputy Prime Minister Turnquest, Minister of Finance and IDB Governor; as well as Hon. Dion Foulkes, Minister of Labor; Financial Secretary Marlon Johnson; and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labor, Cecilia Strachan, for the invitation to bring remarks on behalf of the Inter-American Development Bank Group.  I also acknowledge all government officials and key stakeholders present, and my IDB colleagues based in Nassau.
•         Today, I am pleased to join the Government of The Bahamas for the signing this key investment program in the human capital of The Bahamas called, Skills for Current and Future Jobs. This represents an overall investment of US$50 million, of which the IDB will finance 40% or US$20 million with the remaining contribution coming from government resources. It has a 6 ½ year grace period, with a six-year disbursement term, and an interest rate based on Libor.
•         This program is the result of significant partnership work in the sector throughout the decade including with the IDB-financed Wage and Productivity Survey (WPS). The WPS concluded that most employers in The Bahamas report difficulties in finding workers with the right set of skills, noting that the lack of job-specific skills is the most important recruitment obstacle (34 percent), followed by applicants’ lack of experience (29 percent), and lack of soft skills (28 percent). The country also faces the challenge of improving labor productivity, which decreased on average 1 percent annually between 2000 and 2011.
•         This investment program seeks to address the three main binding factors to lowering unemployment levels and increase labor productivity: (i) skills shortages (ii) limited capacity of job-seekers to connect with opportunities in the labor market, and (iii) insufficient generation and use of labor market intelligence (LMI). To address these constraints, this program has three main components: (1) Pre-apprenticeships + Apprenticeships + Sector Skills Councils: a partnership among the public sector, private sector, and academic institutions to establish a nation-wide demand-driven apprenticeship program in three key industries: information technology, maritime and shipping, and medical services, that will combine on and off-the-job training to provide unemployed Bahamians between the ages of 16 and 40 with the skills they need to succeed in the workplace; (2) Better Job Matching: to improve the effectiveness of the Public Employment Services (PES), and construction of a modern, energy-efficient building, appropriately equipped to upgrade skills to the needs of the job market in the 21st century, and match job opportunities with seekers; and (3) Labor Markets Information System: to strengthen labor force intermediation via enhanced labor market intelligence systems.
•         As a development partner, the IDB Group is pleased to provide technical and financial assistance to the Government and people of The Bahamas to address some of its key development challenges. Thank you for your trust and support. We look forward to continuing our work together to benefit all Bahamians.