By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A misguided “sense of entitlement” has undermined Bahamian productivity and competitiveness, a top private sector executive yesterday warning there was “no merit” to growing the economy unless locals benefited.

Gowon Bowe, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) chairman, told Tribune Business that too many had misinterpreted the ‘Bahamianisation’ goals and believed they had a divine right to a job and income.

He argued that ‘Bahamianisation’s’ real aim was for Bahamians to seize the opportunities around them, not simply anticipate they would automatically come to them because of their birthright.

Such notions, the Chamber chairman suggested, had exacerbated the “structural imbalances” in the labour market and elsewhere that continued to hold the Bahamian economy - and its growth - back.

Mr Bowe’s comments, which may touch a raw nerve among some Bahamian nationalists, will also serve as a ‘wake up’ call for persons to equip themselves with the necessary skills to exploit future economic opportunities.

He was responding after the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive Board warned on Wednesday that labour market and other constraints would condemn the Bahamas to average 1.5 per cent medium term growth rates - a level nowhere near good enough to make a “sufficient” dent in the high 15.7 per cent unemployment rate.

Mr Bowe said the IMF statement was “consistent” with the concerns and findings of both the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report and the US State Department’s ‘Investment Climate’ report when it came to the Bahamas.

“In reality, it is not an unknown fact that there are structural imbalances that need to be corrected,” he told Tribune Business.

“Unfortunately, when you look at the labour statistics, and are talking about the unemployment problems, the root causes are two-fold: Economic growth and expansion, and the skills gaps. We have to address both of them.

“There is no merit in expanding the economy if persons living in the economy can’t take advantage of it. We have to start getting ourselves ready to take advantage of opportunities,” Mr Bowe added.

“The report says that while there are going to be economic opportunities, they [the IMF] are very seriously questioning whether the labour force is ready to take advantage of them.”

If the Bahamian labour force was unable to meet the private sector’s needs, then businesses would inevitably have to hire expatriates to fill the gap, something Mr Bowe said would only raise tensions and complaints related to work permits and foreign employees.

The Chamber chairman also warned that the attitudes and misconceptions held by some were fuelling the ‘skills gaps’ and productivity questions plaguing the Bahamian workforce.

“We have a situation where, unfortunately, our society has gained a sense of entitlement because of Bahamianisation,” Mr Bowe told Tribune Business.

“What was really intended by the architects of Bahamianisation was for Bahamians to look around and seize the opportunities.”

He added that this concept had not been without its successes, as both middle and upper classes in Bahamian society had been created, and investment and business ownership groups formed out of them.

However, Mr Bowe said there had simply “not been enough” of the latter to create a critical mass. And, too often, ‘Bahamianisation’ had given “a sense of entitlement to Bahamians rather than an urgency and sense of ownership of your own economy”.

Yet the attitude of Bahamians when they went abroad was completely different, and Mr Bowe said such a mantra should be adopted at home.

“When Bahamians travel abroad they see themselves as outsiders, and they’re very much driven to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves,” he told Tribune Business.

“But when Bahamians are at home they don’t want to compete, particularly with foreigners, and other local persons. They feel they have an automatic right to a job and income.

“We have to see ourselves as part of a competitive global environment, where we are best-suited to take advantage of opportunities at home, rather than simply because the opportunities are here we should be entitled to them.”

The IMF executive board, in its statement, warned: “Potential GDP growth is estimated at about 1.5 per cent over the medium term, insufficient to generate a significant reduction in the high unemployment rate.

“Absent structural reforms, including in the labour market and the energy sector, significantly higher growth than currently projected will be required to absorb new entrants to the labour force and reduce the unemployment rate to single digits over the medium term.”

Mr Bowe last night said the Bahamas should also focus on developing a cadre of ‘blue-collar’ professionals and tradesmen, such as masons, carpenters and mechanics, as opposed to concentrating solely on ‘white collar’ jobs.

“We have to balance, when we talk about strategic developments in the workforce, not focusing solely on academia and ‘As and Bs’ in the classroom, but vocational and technical skills that allow [blue collar workers] dictate their prices,” he said.

Mr Bowe said that the compensation tradesmen received for their work was too often “a guessing game”, especially if they “took short cuts” and only performed cosmetic fixes or left a mess behind them.

He added that improving the workforce should be a priority for both the Government and private sector.

The latter’s apprenticeship programmes were teaching participants “the basic skills they are unfortunately leaving school without”.