Dr. Delisle Worrell, Governor of the Central Bank with his wife Monica Drayton-Worrell, speaking to Anthony Alleyne, Principal of Deighton Griffith School.
Nicky Hunte, (left) past student of Deighton Griffith School receiving the Deputy Chairman’s Prize for the Top Male Caribbean Examination Council Examination Performance.
Worrell praises leadership at Deighton Griffith
“An unsung hero” that is how Dr. Delisle Worrell, Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, described the Principal of the Deighton Griffith Secondary School, Anthony Alleyne.
At the Speech Day and Prize Giving ceremony the results both in academics and achievements in non-academic areas is a testament of hard work and determination and Worrell indicated that the Principal plays an important role in setting the foundation, that where there is an inspired leader and a vision, there will be the impetus for positive development.
The Governor also explained the importance of Tourism to the students, he stated. “Tourism is Barbados’ most important source of foreign exchange; it provides us with about $2 000 million each year, all in foreign exchange. Our second most important source of foreign exchange is our business and financial services sector, which pulls in half that amount, $1 000 million. Our exports of rum, chemicals and other products bring in $500 million dollars. These three foreign exchange sectors are the engines that power the growth of our economy, and their strength is the reason we are confident that growth prospects are good. Our tourism is the most competitive in the Caribbean, and the seventh in all of the Americas, after the US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica.
There are only six countries in the Americas that are more competitive in tourism than Barbados and they are all much bigger than Barbados. Our international business services are highly regarded internationally. Our rum is world famous and our exports are successful in highly competitive markets. In contrast to tourism and other foreign exchange earners, we cannot grow our economy by creating jobs in the Government service. That is because Government does not earn any foreign exchange. If too many Government employees are buying stuff, and there is not enough foreign exchange coming in, the commercial banks will come to Central Bank for US dollars when shops need to restock to replace the cell phones they’ve sold. That depletes the Central Bank’s reserves of foreign currency, at a time when we need to build up foreign reserves.”