KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness has urged regional students attending the University of the West Indies (UWI) to play an active role in advancing regional integration by fostering stronger relationships across the Caribbean and beyond.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness (right) and Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister, Abka Fitz-Henley (center) listens to UWI Mona Campus Guild President, Keshawn McGrath during their meeting last weekend (JIS)“All of you are existing in a period of time where the rate of change of innovation, of technology has never been as fast as it is now. You are going into a world where you’re going to be required not only to know the conventional wisdom, but you are going to be required to be innovators and creators of new knowledge, new ways of doing things,” Holness told the students.
“For this generation of Caribbean leaders coming through our universities… you have to be innovators. You have to become connected to the global economy. Yes, we must see ourselves as Caribbean, but we can’t see ourselves as not connected to the global ecosystem. Yes, we are small islands, but that does not stop us from being innovators,” he added.
A government statement said Holness, who met with the students from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, last weekend, also encouraged them to develop the skills, attitudes and mindset needed to compete effectively in an increasingly dynamic global labour market.
Holness was joined by the Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister, Abka Fitz-Henley and the statement said that the meeting followed a request from the UWI Mona campus for two government officials to engage with the visiting regional student leaders.
The statement said that during the engagement, Prime Minister Holness responded to questions from student leaders on a range of issues affecting Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, including affordable housing, debt management, regional integration, productivity and efficiency, and leadership at the student, regional and global levels.
Prime Minister Holness said the engagement provided a valuable opportunity for the government to hear directly from student leaders on issues affecting students and young people across Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.
He noted that the discussions also covered student development, leadership, education, opportunities for young people, and other issues of national and regional importance.
Prime Minister Holness stressed that young people must have a voice in shaping the future of the Caribbean, while Fitz-Henley said the Jamaica government is committed to ongoing engagement on issues affecting students and the future advancement of societies across the region.
“The Prime Minister values our opinions and sees our contributions as important to helping to shape policy at various levels of government, including the highest level,” Fitz-Henley said.
UWI Mona Campus Guild President, Keshawn McGrath, said the Guild intends to pursue further engagement with the government as student leaders seek a greater understanding of the challenges facing countries at the national, regional and international levels.
