juncture in Caribbean development of the effort that Governments must make at job creation. Most Caribbean governments are committed by policy to maximizing employment, yet the technology we have inherited seems to become year by year more capital intensive. If the policy aim of employment maximization is to be secured, two developments seem to be indispensable and in both the professionals can take a lead. Governments need advice how to combine different levels of technology in the same project. We raised this question with representatives from the Government of China. They say their situation is simple: they have never had enough heavy equipment for any major project, so they have always had to supplcmcnt the large with the small machine, and the small machine with hand labour. On the same project, therefore, they employ at the same time large bulldozers, heavy tractors, small tractors, wheelbarrows and men and women carrying earth in baskets. Caribbean developers need to evolve and disseminate a practice of our own in this respect. Perhaps our professionals who work on the physical environment should take a look at techniques employed to this end in other countries, particularly countries with developing economies. 30. Of the same order is another kind of research which is sorely needed research aimed at lowering the ratio of skilled and unskilled personnel on a project so as to spread the effectiveness of a single technician and allow more projects to be done and more unskilled labour to be gainfully employed with a smaller complement of skilled labour.
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In the sphere of formulafion of policy the sector in which the most valuable contribution can, I think, be made by the professions is in the overall management of land resources. All Caribbean Governments need informed and impartial advice in order to establish the hierarchy of claims on the use of land. Professionals in town planning and land economy, in and out of Government, can make a signal contribution to national development if they will carry out joint studies and provide co-ordinated advice on this subject. i.
32. Closely allied to land management; is the protection of the natural environment from pollution. The number of professionals available to Governments competent to deal with broad problems of industrial waste, human waste and soil degradation, etc., is totally insufficient for the tasks at hand. It is certainly insufficient for the pace at which values which have taken centuries to build up are now being destroyed. The improvement in the. quality of national life to which the preservation of natural amenities is essential, will only be secured if the adoption of policies is based on technically informed and technically sound advice.
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