AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF

BVIEC AND CARILEC HUMAN RESOURCE TRAINING PROFESSIONALS CONFERENCE

18 September, 2008

This organisation: CARILEC, which was formed in 1989 and has as its mission to build the efficiency and viability of its members and to support their efforts at improving the quality of life of the Caribbean people by delivering products and services that are relevant, cost effective and of the highest quality, is, (if I may say so), at a critical juncture of its very existence.

Just what do you expect from CARILEC?  If the state of affairs of your BVI member is indicative of what is happening in the rest of the region, then one has every reason to be concern about the road ahead.

Promising to deliver products and services that are relevant, cost effective and of the highest quality, at a time when the cost of fuel was less than 50c a gallon was one thing, but having to deliver it today when a gallon of fuel is over $3.50 is another.

The rising cost of fuel world wide, has got utilities reeling with problems and placed at odds with their customers who are left having to pick up the high cost which is hopelessly always passed along to them, and in most cases, without a plausible explanation.

While I do not expect CARILEC to be of any assistance with mitigating the impact of rising fuel costs, I do however, see a role that they can play here in the BVI and elsewhere in meeting their mission, and that is in the area of Human Resources; and Technology Transfer.

That being said, I may have answered a question I asked earlier, when I said, Just what do you expect from CARILEC?  There is strength in numbers, and with this organisation of 91 members, which includes twenty nine (29) Full Members that are electric utilities and fifty nine (59) Associate Members that are companies involved in some aspect of servicing the electric utility business and three (3) Affiliate Members, I should not have to do the math.

But can we translate those numbers into fat benefits for Member Utilities in the manner I pointed out?  If we fail at that, then we would have failed our Charter sponsors of 1989, namely USAID, and NRECA.

 To illustrate my point, here in the BVI, since the inception of a Territory wide campaign in the late 1960’s which saw the distribution of Electricity to every corner of this island by 1970, our utility company has been in a constant state of catch up ever since.  Despite massive infusions of capital, which always seem to be neutralised by these out of control escalating fuel costs of late, and prior to that, you can blame rapid population growth.

What has happened as a result is that the availability of capital once used for repairs, maintenance, research and development has just about evaporated, and the only hope now is to make these organisations such as CARILEC do what they were established to do.

The BVIEC must reach out to CARILEC for assistance in those areas where there are strengths and build from them.  I am sure that both my Chairman and General Manager can think of many things with which CARILEC can be of help with.

Just Tuesday as a Government, we were tossing around ideas as to how we can help our Turks and Caicos brothers and sisters rebound from their recent disaster, and apart from the usual cash contribution, I thought of being creative, and suggested sending two linesmen, and a bucket truck.  But can I?  I wonder, given the state of our own affairs here.  And that leaves me to wonder if the rest of the Caribbean is any better off, considering that we are all exposed to the same vulnerabilities.

I am encouraged by the initiatives espoused by CARILEC especially in the area of Information & Communications Technologies:

• Broadband Over Power Line

(Just speaking about this technology alone is huge; the reality of this is not far fetch, since it is already happening in the US). And

• Fiber Optic Applications

Your efforts here today are to be applauded, for despite recent global and regional economic conditions, you have kept your focus on the business at hand with a view to making your respective organisations better.

I have always contended that it is the duty of the Human Resources Department of any Organisation to network, network and network; and if that fails, you network, so that when managers are in need of people, there will be no hesitation in finding them.  Back in the 1980s we had to create Brain Banks, today it is networking that counts.

I am not sure that this is happening, I may be wrong, but I do not see it being translated into action on the ground.  How many of you are in contact with each other outside of these meetings?  If the answer is not many, or none, then these meetings are not serving their intended purposes, and that is not good for the industry.

In closing, let me welcome each of you who have travelled to be here with us to this conference, and thank the facilitators for choosing the BVI. 

I further invite you to tour the Islands for their beauty, and as a bonus you can use the excuse that you were examining our electrical network in order to bill your respective sponsors for the tour.

Thank you and enjoy your stay in the British Virgin Islands.

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