Fellow Dominicans, it is a high honor and distinct privilege to be invited to address you today. Three months ago we celebrated on the 26th anniversary of Dominica's independence. An anniversary should always be a time for reflection and stock taking. It is an occasion to look back, to determine what we have done right, learn from our mistakes, and seek to apply the lessons that we have learnt in order to avoid future mistakes so as to better prepare ourselves for the challenges that lie ahead. Along those lines I am sure our compatriots in the mother land have devoted some time to this important exercise, amidst of course, of all the festive activities that form part of the annual celebrations. It would, however, be unfortunate if the emphasis were on just the festive part, at the exclusion of the serious introspection which must accompany such an occasion.

    Tonight I invite you to join me in a few moments of reflection on the current situation in our homeland and ponder on the problems and difficulties that face us as a nation as we try to chart a course for ourselves in the global village which we inhabit.

    It should be more than obvious to most that over a quarter century of independence has brought a number of challenges and uncertainties to our small island nation, some of which should have been anticipated, while others caught us totally unprepared. Any reflection over our nation's past has to take into account the lessons learnt and a determination to adopt new habits and modes of behavior if we are to avoid the mistakes of the past.

    To some in 1978, the idea that a small island of some 80,000 people with a single agricultural export crop would be seeking political independence, seemed like a sad joke. But there was the will. What was absent was a realistic assessment of ourselves: What did we possess that we could build on? What sort of nation did we set out to build? We say in our motto "after God the Earth". What is the meaning of this in the context of forging a national character as we proceed down the path of developing our economy and society? I submit that those questions and many more were not considered, as it seemed at the time that we were overly preoccupied with the trappings of power and our place in the pecking order. It was as if we sought to build a house on sand and predictably, all came crashing down almost in time for the silver anniversary last year.

    You all know what I am talking about. The economy came to a screeching halt and went into decline after years of poor fiscal management and a state of permanent denial of the real conditions we faced as an independent people. Add to this the fact that our political directorate sought to postpone the day of reckoning, hoping against reason that conditions would improve on their own and without having to make the tough political decisions which responsible directors of the nations future are expected to make. As a consequence, the much feared International Monetary Fund was called in as a last resort to help us put our fiscal house in order. And the solutions did not come without pain. I credit the late Prime Minister Pierre Charles for biting the bullet in adopting the politically difficult measures of tax increases and spending cuts necessary to bring about the desired changes. Fortunately, the worst seems to be behind us now. The economy has stabilized; but it would be dangerous to sit back and rest on our oars. The work is not yet done. The more difficult task of promoting and sustaining growth has not yet begun.

    There are those who say that it is more important to look forward than to look back. I stand before you convinced that it is as important to look back as it is to look forward.

    Over the last 25 years the prevailing view had been that the single most important factor in our country's development was the Foreign Investor. Our leaders traveled extensively in pursuit of the pot of gold that lay beyond our shores. Hopes were built, only to be dashed again and again. If records were kept researchers would find innumerable deals that were touted as the answer to job creation for the legions of high school graduates, only to find hollow dreams that remain unfulfilled.

    At last reality has begun to set in. Dominica's development rests in the hands of its citizens. Foreign participation is welcome, but ultimately, our country's development is a function of local entrepreneurship and ingenuity.

    Let me for a moment discuss the experience of a country much larger than Dominica and the path that this country took on its way to development. All of you may be familiar with India, the second most populous country of our planet. India shares with us the distinction of having been part of the vast British Empire. It was among the first to gain independence from Britain at the end of World War II. The question that I posed earlier in terms of who we are, what assets we possess and how do we build on them, must have been uppermost in the mind of India's first prime minister, Nehru. Having done his calculation, he concluded that India's hopes lie in the development of its human resources. As a consequence, he committed his government and his country to building a first class educational infrastructure to produce a first class labor force second to none in the global economy. Of course, back then, the world 'global' was not in vogue, nor could he have imagined the development of world trade that permitted the evolution of "outsourcing" that has become part and parcel of the new global economy. After some fifty years of perfecting its formula for development based on nurturing its human resources, India is now known as an incubator of technology and technology outsourcing to the point where they have become the envy of the world. They do not possess oil or mineral resources. Their strength is in their human capital. Their leadership was smart enough to identify their potential strength and embarked upon a course of sharpening their human capital resources through education. They now possess a human capital base that is second to none. And what more important, they have managed to keep their wages low relative to North American standards. It is no wonder when you do business with an American company over the phone, more often than not, you are talking with someone with an accent that is not quite American.

    Are there lessons we as Dominicans can learn from the Indian experience? I submit that there are. First, in order to deal with the future, you have to prepare yourself in the present. We need to do some soul searching to discover our strengths and weakness. And having done this self examination the next stage involves the hard work of self improvement and development of the skill set necessary to equip ourselves to compete from a position of strength.

    Sometimes it is easy to forget that all business involves some form of barter. We exchange something of value that we possess in order to obtain some other thing of value that someone else possesses. The operative word here is "value". If we expect something of value without the ability to deliver something of comparable value, there is no trade. Without this idea of reciprocity, there is no trade; perhaps only a hand out. And this is largely what we Dominica have come to expect in our dealings with foreign businessmen since independence. This has been the reality and this explains to some extent, the lack of accomplishment, the lack of success as we witness one dream after another flounder, because they were based on the false premise that we could reap without toil.

    Ensuring survival in the global economy requires a high level of diligence and preparation on three levels: On the individual level, the family level and the national level.

    The individual level is perhaps the most crucial in terms of providing the catalyst for growth and stability of economic performance. For it is the individual that embodies all the desirable qualities necessary to ensure growth and efficiency of production. Among those desirable qualities are:

1. Acquisition of skills set required to compete. It goes without saying that in order to get ahead in today's workplace one needs to have the requisite skills and these are either obtained from on the job training or through a program of formal education. In addition one must recognize that the trend in the modern economy is for workers to have multiple careers over a life time due to shifting conditions in the marketplace. The culprit: Outsourcing, an idea that did not exist in the national lexicon two decades ago. As a consequence, workers must be open to the need to continuously update their skill levels to hold a job and to compete effectively in the global work environment. In this regard it is necessary to be reminded that the competition for labor transcends national boundaries and includes the one and half billion Chinese and more than a billion Indians who are waiting to take jobs away at a fraction of what we are currently earning.
2. Adoption of a healthy work attitude. Economic and financial success often depends on the kind of attitude we bring into the workplace. In sports, as in business, attitude is indeed everything. We must love what we are doing as if our life depends on it. One must see his work or his business as an opportunity to excel at what one does, and not simply as a means of making money. And in this context I have often been asked for advice as to how to make money. My standard reply is: Focus on delivering a good or service to the market place that is the best available anywhere, be client centric and above all, realize that money in and of itself ought not be a goal, but rather a yardstick by which we measure success. The goal is excellence in serving others. If this is done consistently and diligently, money will follow. It is no wonder that 8 out of ten billionaires in the Fortune 500 list are people who have run successful businesses, who have tended to the needs of their customers and who have put excellence in service above making money. Ironically, they make tons of money by following this simple formula. This is especially true if we are operating in a competitive environment where consumers often vote with their feet and their wallets. And whilst I am on this subject I cannot avoid mentioning an experience I had recently right here in Miami. Most Caribbean people in this town are familiar with an institution known as LC's Roti on 441 owned by a Trinidadian. Trinidad, of course, is not a country that is known for customer friendliness. But when I asked a waiter there if I could have a boneless chicken Roti, her sullen reply reminded me that the concept of customer centrism in business is not one that has been learnt even if the business has been in existence in the United States for over a decade. The reason: There is no competition for the product in the immediate area. And the good thing about competition is that it forces us to adapt to change and makes us focus on what matters, i.e.' be customer friendly and responsive, if we wish to survive.
3. Time management. The concept of time management is not something that gets a great deal of attention as a factor in worker productivity. But its importance ought not be underestimated. We often think of technology, and capital, among others, as the primary drivers of productivity. Yet the wise use of time, and the ability to prioritize can be the decisive edge in setting us apart. We must get used to the idea of setting goals for the activities we deem to have priority, set deadlines for their completion while continuously measuring progress and reviewing performance as we go forward. Good execution involves this process, as any seasoned chief executive will attest. In fact I have often said this is perhaps the weakness most prevalent in our beloved Dominica, this inability to execute, or more accurately, the lack of discipline in goal setting, prioritizing, time management and execution..
4. Enlightened Leadership. I think we can all agree that the quality of country's leadership has a lot to do with the pace of its development. When I look at what has happened in St. Lucia over the past two decades and the relative stagnation in Dominica, for instance, my instinct tells me that it is not all due to their relative advantage in having a little more blessings from nature (think about their white sand beaches etc). There has been a component that I will call enlightened leadership. The simple fact of the matter is, relative to St. Lucia and perhaps other Caribbean islands, Dominica has not been blessed with enlightened leadership in the past. Our leaders, though well intentioned, have allowed themselves to be pulled in directions that distract them from the task of goal setting, prioritizing and execution. They spend far too much time being consumed with the trappings of power and too little time on developing a vision for the future. They spend too much time cannibalizing each other and too little time challenging the nation to aspire to higher goals. When John Kennedy challenged his nation in 1960 to land a man on the moon and return him alive before the end of that decade, his inspiration filled the hearts and minds of a nation that felt threatened by the then Soviet Union. His inspiration led to a burst in scientific discovery and engineering pursuits that set the foundation for the technological advances America boasts of today. Similarly, what we need in the Dominica political leadership is for our leaders to call on the nation to wake up from its slumber, to set short, intermediate and long term goals for the country, to appeal to the best in all of its citizens, and by all means, appeal to everyone to cease engaging in self destructive behavior. A C.E.O. of a company knows what it is to have strategic vision. The same should be true for a Prime Minister.