By Floyd French
Observer Reporter
(Basseterre, St. Kitts) – The public and private sectors need to work together more closely, according to the immediate past president of the St. Kitts- Nevis Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Mr. Franklin Brand held his last press conference as president on Feb. 26. On Feb. 27, members of the Chamber elected a new president.
Speaking to the media, Mr. Brand appraised his job as being mixed with successes and many challenges.
“I may have achieved some limited success in heightening the profile of the Chamber and a lot of stumbling blocks along the way. There were a lot more lows than highs but there were some great moments,” said Mr. Brand.
Mr. Brand illustrated the lack of public and private sector confidence and cooperation when he said his suggestion to have a retreat with the Prime Minister to discuss electoral reform was never taken up. He also said that both sectors “need to move beyond such animosity and get down to solving the critical problems in the country.”
“There are persons in the chamber willing to work with Government,” he added.
Mr. Brand, however, noted that there are people who view the hostilities as beneficial to their cause.
“Unfortunately, there are those persons who have a vested interest in not allowing the public and private sector to have a better relationship,” he said. “For some people, the adversarial approach makes more sense politically.” He added that business persons are used as “whipping posts” and “scapegoats” for a lot of things going wrong in society.
The outgoing president also called for greater collaboration among private sector interest groups. He said this unity might lead to greater success in negotiations with the public sector.
“I feel that the private sector of this country needs to be more united. I believe there needs to be a coalition of private sector groups,” said Mr. Brand.
Mr. Brand said he hoped that the new chamber board would explore fostering greater cooperation with private sector entities.
“You are not going to get anywhere if you are disjointed, you must be unified. I say this hoping someday that the chamber would sit down with the Hotel and Tourism Association, with the shipping association and any other private sector group for that matter and work out deeper ways of cooperating with each other.
“Government would have no choice but to respect that coalition and its views even more than it does the fragmented groups,” he added.
Mr. Brand also acknowledged that the chamber needed to do more to communicate directly to the general public. He believes this ought to be a change the new board should implement, but he foresees the voluntary nature of board members as a hurdle. He said the Chamber currently lacks the human resources to effectively educate the public on economic and business matters.
