By Neil Hartnell

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas is “outperforming” and “leading the region” through the number of local companies deemed to be “innovative”, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is asserting, although their growth is hindered by a lack of suitably-skilled workers, market size and financing challenges.

Dr Jose Luis Saboin, in an IDB presentation dated November 19, 2025, asserted that the presence of 1,381 firms considered “innovative” by a Compete Caribbean Partnership survey placed The Bahamas ahead of Caribbean rivals. This nation was also cited as outpacing the region for companies viewed as “potentially innovative” from an environmental or ‘green’ standpoint with these entities numbering 1,434.

“The Bahamas is outperforming the region in the presence of innovative firms,” the presentation asserted. “Bahamian firms are leading the region on innovation.” However, this nation was ranked slightly behind the rest of the Caribbean on “potentially innovative” firms and “digital innovation.”

And “innovative” firms in The Bahamas are facing similar constraints to their growth and development as Caribbean counterparts. For already-innovative firms in The Bahamas and the region, close to 80 percent cited small market sizes as their biggest challenge, while while more than 60 percent highlighted the problems posed by the “qualifications of employees” or lack of them.

More than 40 percent of “innovative” Bahamian companies complained they are held back by a labour force “that lacks the skills required for innovation”, while financing, the level of available financial resources and perceived risks were lesser concerns.

As for “potentially innovative firms”, the impediments faced in The Bahamas were again similar to the wider Caribbean. Close to 90 percent of such companies in both The Bahamas and the Caribbean cited the “qualification of employees” as the greatest challenge, while 80 percent also mentioned a lack of financial resources.

A similar percentage also highlighted their national market size, or lack of it, while almost 60 percent of “potentially innovative” Bahamian firms fingered concerns that the “labour force lacks the skills required for innovation”.

Peter Goudie, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) labour division chief, told Tribune Business that the workforce-related concerns referenced in the IDB presentation match the feedback the newly-formed National Productivity Task Force has been receiving “like crazy” from the ongoing survey it is conducting of private sector and public sector employers.

Disclosing that the survey results are presently being compiled, and likely to be published in mid-December 2025, he added that nothing in the responses to-date has proved surprising as they merely highlight the decades-long concern of employers that they are simply unable to locate the skills they require in sufficient quantity in the Bahamian workforce.

“That’s no surprise,” Mr Goudie told this newspaper of the impediments identified by “innovative” Bahamian firms in the IDB presentation. “We need to fix our education system. That’s why we brought in the Apprenticeship Programme. We really need to fix our education system and get rid of social progression.

“I know why it came in. But we’ve gotten way beyond that. Way beyond it. I get push back by some people who say you cannot leave somebody in Grade Two until they are 15 years-old. I say: ‘Really?’ Maybe we need an alternative route for them, because to allow that 15 year-old to move up the education system will disrupt the education of those getting an education.

“I don’t agree that we should leave somebody not moving up in Grade Two. But they have got to pass, and if they cannot pass we need to do something about it. I know why we did it, but we cannot do it any more.”

Reiterating that the number of high school graduates who are ill-prepared for the workforce is a “huge, huge, huge” problem for both the Bahamian private sector and society, Mr Goudie said: “We’re getting that feedback now on the Productivity Task Force.

“I sit on the National Productivity Task Force and we’ve done a survey. It’s not finished yet, but it’s close. The feedback coming from people is just that - lack of skills and education. We’re getting that feedback. Nobody is surprised with the feedback we’re getting, but it just keeps sending the message that we have a problem.

“We’re getting the message like crazy. You have got to sit there and say to yourself: ‘If every Tom, Dick and Harry in this country is saying the same thing, we have a problem and need to do something about it. We’re trying to get as much feedback as we can. We already have hundreds of answers and want more, especially from the youth, and are not getting it but we’re going to keep trying,” Mr Goudie added.

“We’re trying to get as much feedback as possible to our survey so we can publish what the private and public sectors say about all these questions we are asking. I can tell you right now none of it’s surprising. It’s not as if it’s ‘really?’. That’s not happening. It’s ‘OK, we have a problem’. We went to all parts of society, everybody we could reach, and asked them to complete this survey - schools, hospitals, healthcare, everybody.

“The feedback is just overwhelming, and so it drives the message home that we need to fix the system. We have a really difficult problem because we are not getting the attention we need to deal with the problem.”