Incoming President Paul Byles' Address - 2017 Membership Appreciation & Elections

Remarks by Incoming President Paul Byles AGM, January 24th 2018 Good afternoon everyone. It is my distinct privilege to address you as Chamber President.

I would like to start by thanking Kyle Broadhurst for his outstanding achievements as President for the last year. His leadership has helped the Council to shape our vision, and his work in establishing the Advocacy Agenda & Action Plan will be evident for the next three years.

As the Immediate Past President, I am sure that Kyle will still have an important role to play in the work of the Chamber. But, for now, I would like to recognise him for his hard work. Ladies and gentlemen please join me in thanking him for his dedicated service to the Chamber this past year.

(APPLAUSE – PRESENT KYLE WITH AWARD)

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As President, I want to assure all members that the work of the Chamber will be of the highest value to you.

We are a Chamber for all businesses. Whether large or small, with hundreds of employees or just one, we will be dedicated to all members. The Advocacy Agenda & Action Plan demonstrates this.

The Plan outlines how we will advocate for you, and the actions we will take to be successful. As you will see in your copies of the report, our four key focus areas include: • Education, Employment & Workforce Development • Economic Growth • Regulatory Efficiency • Community Development

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This year, I want you to see and feel the value of your Chamber of Commerce membership. We want to encourage your development and growth, as you are the engine that fuels our economy. Our members, this Chamber of Commerce family in the Cayman Islands, provides over 18,114 jobs that individuals go to each morning. That’s why we need you to grow, so that Caymanians can continue to have access to these jobs.

Naturally, we also want that growth to be sustainable and appropriate. So as we encourage entrepreneurship and growth, we will also advocate for outstanding business practices & corporate social responsibility.

The private sector and wider community are both very influential, and together we can achieve a great deal. But at times we are often over-reliant on government. I believe that there are opportunities for us to better

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combine the forces of the wider community, other industry bodies and the business sector to help government in areas they need it most.

Building an effective partnership with the Government A vital aspect of achieving the goals set for each of these four action areas is ensuring that when we do partner with the government that we do so more effectively, achieving impactful results.

It is good to share a joint vision. To agree on a general approach. And to publicly display partnership, because all these things instill confidence generally throughout the economy and the wider community.

But it also important and often to a much larger degree, for the public and private sector to do things together. To act promptly when necessary. To compromise in discussions on policy matters. And to make genuine attempts 4

to understand the position of the other side. As an example of this, for too long in this country, our approach towards sorting out the big challenges in the areas of employment and immigration takes the form of a debate where each side arrives fully equipped with a permanent position with an attempt to ‘win’ the debate.

And so for example we have on the one hand, assertions that the primary reasons for unemployment relates to discrimination against Caymanians.

Poor and unfair recruitment or succession planning practices within the private sector. And from another set of stakeholders, we have the assertion that the primary reasons for unemployment are that too many Caymanians have poor work ethic, or are unqualified for the jobs they seek.

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Both set of positions are extreme and inflexible. In the end those that have taken these positions in both the private and public sectors walk away ironically with each side feeling that they have somehow ‘won’ the debate simply by making an emphatic argument.

But at the end of it all, we achieve absolutely nothing. In the end there is no real policy change and the superficial debate continues for another 10 years.

And when we look around we will still have what is believed to be too many Caymanians unemployed, evidence of Caymanian business owners feeling frustrated, and the same logical but extremely polarizing arguments to explain the position we are in.

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Something has to change We now need to take a different approach. When we enter the room, instead of debating, we should place everything on the table and have a conversation about how we can take all of these things into account and find a solution for everyone.

We don’t need a debate. We need a solution which benefits Caymanians both as employees and as business owners.

For that to work we need actual evidence and information on the profile of the unemployed, their situation, their qualifications, their attempts to get a

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job, their experience when being denied. Our community is small enough for us to achieve that task. We also need to get back to the idea of rewarding businesses that demonstrate fair practices and support for Caymanians as I believe many of our Chamber members are doing. And yes we also need to ensure that adequate enforcement is in place to deal with what I hope will be only a very few number of businesses that demonstrate poor HR practices. In doing all these things we can then arrive at a conclusion as to the primary causes of unemployment rather than the dogmatic assertions often repeated to superficially win points with our various interest groups in both the public and private sectors.

Ladies and gentlemen, the previous approach hasn’t worked and its time to take a new path. We have taken this approach for the past 5 decades. It has not worked and it will never work. I strongly believe that a new path is

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possible now. I believe that there IS a genuine partnership that is emerging between the Chamber and the Government.

The collaboration of the public and private sector and wider community can yield very positive results. So let us work together and support one another, to achieve success, sustainable economic growth and make the Islands a safer and better place for everyone.

Thank you.

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