00:00:17.140 - 00:01:11.760

sure. Wondering. Very Okay. I don't. This what you already together already? Who painted this? It's all over. Everybody had a part of you. How do you feel about the intervention? A year later? Hard life is very good. Thank you for Grenada. Yeah, rather. You see, I know.

00:01:13.240 - 00:01:49.850

What? What do you think is gonna happen the next year here in Canada? Well, I really think not. Not yet. I know. After election whole thing. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm future You want to have? Yeah. Middle of a war on. Enjoying right. Mhm. Some revenue generation project?

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No, no. As an engine. Did you go to school? Yeah. How many years you go to school? The 8%. That was what to do. Mhm. 20 seconds is affected then. Right. So you want to go for this? Yeah. Yeah. People message mhm throughout. The always been very successful in our goals.

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We've done $4 million of business or business that's under active negotiation. And I think that's just the beginning of what kind of relationships will grow out of the contacts were made in the past four days. We also have substantially increased our people to people relationship. The scholarship program in which we are going to be providing assistance to Caribbean students to come to Florida.

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Study at one of our colleges. Universities the provision of textbooks for high schools in Dominica and here in Grenada. Other assistance in vocational and technical areas are exactly the kind of outreach programs which a state like Florida, with its capabilities can make so available, benefit the Caribbean and benefit Florida.

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Has anything surprised you and the economies or the way they conduct their business dealings here? Have you learned anything that's different about it? It would be saying, Florida. I guess the thing that you have to remember is the scale. This country of Grenada has approximately 100 plus people.

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We have a dozen counties are more in Florida that have more people than they have in this country. So when you're talking about business, you've got to relate it to the number of people, to the scale of the economy, to the scale of operations that are reasonably to be expected.

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I think we brought with us and business people who had that understanding and who we're dealing with people. For instance, uh, one of the men, uh horticulturalist. He's arranged to buy several 1000 cuttings of plants to bring back for purposes of his nursery in Florida. That's the kind of operation that the people in these island countries can relate to.

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Why wouldn't the businessmen come to Grenada? Why did they go straight back from Barbados? Why not come here with you? Well, Grenada is probably a country where everybody is waiting until after the elections in December before they give it a serious look. We're very hopeful that the result of the election will be a stable, democratic, free enterprise supporting human liberties, respecting government that will send a message of confidence to the investors in Florida and in America and will cause the effort that we made here a year ago, uh, to bear full fruit.

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But until that election, until the people of Grenada give a signal as to what kind of future they want, I don't believe you're gonna find foreign investors seriously making moves in this country. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Um, wait. Mhm story. Mhm. Yeah, Yeah. Mhm. Mhm.

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Yeah. Mhm. Really? Yeah. Shopping. Mhm. Okay. Include inspecting each other ships and crack. Thanks. Mm hmm. I mean, see, if they wouldn't make it so. All right, get a still camera. I want to your bother. Let's get the educators on this side of the governor on others.

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Would you like to be in this textbook? Very different. Every this firm, hard court race. Giovanna recently make too. Want me to take a job? You make that he's available in there. Okay, sure. Look up there, Junior. They print these books in Florida now? Yeah. Madam Program.

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Sure. Too much sun. Nice. Nice. What? Mhm. Okay, Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, for your be the last one of my classes. I'm 20. Yes, in medicine. Quite so right. Locally. Five. Jim, the governor and business delegation are calling the trip a success. The profit potential in the Caribbean is phenomenal.

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But it's not only Florida businesses that stand to profit, but also the people of the Caribbean. For them, it can mean jobs and a more stable economy. When most South Floridians think of the Caribbean, we may not realize its cultural and economic diversity. But hopping from island to island, you see various degrees of wealth and of American influence.

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For example, Barbados buys more than $80 million in goods annually from Florida, everything from lumber and tomatoes to jewelry and clocks. A Third World island like Dominique imports a mere $200 in products from the entire US, But the goal of this trip was not only to improve trade, but to set up joint business ventures like this American toy factory in Grenada and a nutbag factory run by Americans but employing Islanders mhm while Florida and the Caribbean are in many ways worlds apart, what the delegation found out was that American capitalism and free enterprise are alive and growing in the Caribbean.

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The thing that you have to remember is the scale. This country of Grenada has approximately 100 plus people. We have a dozen counties or more in Florida that have more people than they have in this country. So when you're talking about business, you've got to relate it to the number of people to the scale of the economy, to the scale of operations that are reasonably to be expected.

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The Florida businessman did more than $4 million in business while on their trip, and the Miami bank has plans in the work to back a $200 million ammonia plant in Trinidad. For Florida, this trip means opening doors to a vast market with tremendous potential they're looking at.

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This is kind of a new entry into a new lifestyle. Perhaps I will have made in between Trinidad and and Barbados. I will have had discussions with something better than two dozen persons in business, either in the retail business or construction people who are interested in products that we sell to make these ventures more profitable to investors.

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There are a variety of federal tax breaks under the Caribbean Base initiative. Because the dollar is strong, investments go a long way. And finally, the Caribbean offers a large and inexpensive workforce. Why should a Florida business invest what's in it for them? I suppose that if he wants to diversify and widen his areas, doesn't have all his eggs in one basket.

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There is, in fact, the cost of labor. Here is lesson this in Florida, Jim, how many jobs are we actually talking about this area? Well, Jim, we visited an American computer plan in Barbados. It's the largest employer on the island, employing more than 1100 workers, and tomorrow we'll take a closer look at how American businesses work in the Caribbean.

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Economic and political stability are equally important to businessmen looking for foreign investments. Tonight, in the third part of Jim Hanley's weeklong look at some of the Caribbean nations and their ties to our state, Jim investigates why Florida investors just aren't willing to take a gamble in Grenada.

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Jim. That's right, Jim. Grenada was the only country out of the four we visited that the Florida delegation had no interest in. Right. Now, that country is preparing to elect a new government. It's not only the future leaders and that concern investors, but the memory of last year's invasion by American troops, right nations and the United States.

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I didn't know it was a period of unrest and uncertainty. In the fall of 1983 U. S. Forces landed on the beaches of Grenada, a security force of American and Caribbean soldiers attacked on land. Today, life for the most part has returned to what most remember as normal tourists at the beaches, school Children on their way to class and bustling activity and an industry that's the heart of the Grenadian economy spices you learn quickly by talking to the people.

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What kind of mark? The invasion and the Marxist regime that preceded it left on them. For now, we are a little bit more free. You don't have to look over your shoulder anymore. The kind of we, the Communists, had us move back down. It would be nice for us to handle or one affairs and stand on our own 2 ft.

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Time has healed in many ways, but the image of an unstable Third World island sticks with many around the world. One of the reasons the businessman from Florida decided not to come along on this trip to Grenada is they consider any investment here a risk. And they know banks due to its not only a question of stability, but also who's going to run the country for the next five years.

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Everybody is waiting until after the elections in December before they give it a serious look. We're very hopeful that the result of the election will be a stable, democratic, free enterprise supporting human liberties, respecting government that will send a message of confidence to the investors in Florida.

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This man, many think would win if December's election were held today his name, Sir Eric Gary. He was prime minister beginning in 1974. Gerry's rain is remembered by some in Grenada as being corrupt. They say Gary was a man who sent a squad of thugs to threaten and beat his critics, and while some wonder about the stability of the government he would form, some also wonder about Gary's mental stability, his strong belief in the supernatural, his obsession with UFOs and his moody behavior.

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On the day we went to Gary's mountaintop home, he was in seclusion and wouldn't talk outside his home. Campaign workers talked of the election, while elsewhere around the island, business leaders worried about a Gary come back. I think a lot of business people and a lot of Canadians field that if Gary gave government got in that the business climate would not grow.

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One thing is for certain, though this election will give the voters a chance to decide the direction they want the government to take. And it will be their government and not an interim appointed one. Well, I'm glad that they're having an election. I know that a lot of Canadians are not enthusiastic about it and I can see the point.

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I think they've gone through traumas, and they really think, Let's get rid of politics. It has put us in all the troubles we've had. But the fact remains that the only way you can make sure you have a government of your choices by an election. Jim, I know that you gathered a lot of information on that trip with the governor.

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What's on tap for tomorrow? Tomorrow we'll talk more with Prime Minister Charles, and we'll take a closer look at Dominique. It's the poorest country that we visited. Looking forward to it. Thanks very much. Jim, one of the poorest countries anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, is trying to get back on its feet tonight in the fourth part of our action.

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Use extra special series. Closing the Gap. Jim Hanley tells us that Dominique is turning to Florida and the United States for help. Jim, that's right, Jim. Yesterday we told you how investors are scared off by the unstable times in Grenada and the recent invasion there. Dominique has had its own problems in attracting foreign investors, but they're different.

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Dominique was discovered by Christopher Columbus a year after he came upon American soil. But this island, with its 29 miles of agricultural terrain, is light years behind our country. Economically, 75,000 people inhabit this Third World republic. For them, day to day life means rebuilding for the future.

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Dominique has been hit with bad economic times in recent years. Hurricane David wiped out much of the island, and a string of bad harvest put trade at a virtual standstill. Unemployment is high, and for those who do work, the pay scale is low. Workers start at about $25 a week, but this country takes pride in the people who get things done.

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Every industry has come here, has said how productive our young people are. So that's one thing. And I think that people are the most important part of any business, then on shall we, I hope and expect that we can give them reasonably cost energy electricity for running any of the factories.

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Cost of living is lower, and therefore the cost of the investor is lower, and much of the island is without electricity and water. Roads destroyed by David are just now being repaid with USA. The economy depends on trading would coconut products and Citrus for other products.

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Dominique turns most often to its neighbors in the Caribbean, but the people are looking to a different future. The young people Ah, don't really want to get into the farming as the ancestors. And I think a lot of our young people would like to get more into factory type jobs and get into industry.

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And Randall Laurent wants to build a light industrial park on his 43 acres of land. It would operate using hydro electric power. He took his idea to the Florida business delegation, and he told them what his country has to offer. Florida businessman can get here from us unskilled labor, the advantage of having a property and the CDC and the Eight Bank and a lot of other, um, business people.

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Commercial people here offer factory space. But with the revolution and invasion in Grenada, some investors are worried about pumping money and energy into Grenada's Third World neighbor. We've had our problems, but I think that everybody realizes that we have overcome them and were able to overcome them and keep our country stable.

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So that's a plus, an investment wonder sometimes How would they be able to react to a problem? But they've seen how we reacted. They realize that we can handle it. Jim, We've been talking all week about money and the investment climate in the Caribbean. Tomorrow we'll take a look at social services on the island, and we'll see how Florida is helping with volunteers.

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Juvenile delinquency and an alarming high school dropout rate has put the Caribbean at a disadvantage when trying to build a strong economy. Tonight, in the final part of Jim Hanley's series Closing the Gap, he tells us how one country is trying to solve that problem. Well, Jim, we've been talking all week about trade and investment in the Caribbean.

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That was the central mission of the governor's trip. But in order to build a strong economy in that region, you first need to have an educated workforce. Tonight we take an in depth look at how one country is trying to put his young people to work.

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Each day, 250 teenagers come down from the poverty stricken mountains of Trinidad to learn the high school dropouts and problem kids learn how to work with their hands and each other, they are being given a second chance on the future. This vocational rehabilitation program runs by private donations from the U.

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S and Trinidad volunteers and money from work contracted out, such as repairing this automobile. The teenagers are taught a variety of skills, including welding, childcare, carpentry and electronics. Each day, they also prepare 1300 lunches and distribute them to six state run primary schools. The students come to the survival program not to make money, but to prepare themselves for a job.

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The first message we say loud and clear to our kids when the communists in this world there are no free lunches by which we try to get them to realize that somebody's got to pay. Somehow, after six months of work, they start earning money, but they don't receive it until after they take an exam and graduate, and then they've made as much as $600.

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But the money is not the most important thing. Experiences in parenting. Traveling out buildings with the electric arc love gas. Well, in our column yeah, we're building a burglar proof get doors. Lot of other things. Because of the success of the survey program, efforts are underway to set up similar programs and neighbouring islands.

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Florida is providing surplus goods and hopes to send help in the form of volunteer training. It's all part of the state push to help build a more stable society from the bottom up. Economic development is absolutely necessary to bring the dollars in to meet the needs of the people.

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But that alone, um, doesn't provide for good development. You need to have the social services you need to have people who eat well of sanitary conditions who are in good shape, who can work and be healthy. Two final notes. While we were in the Caribbean, Governor Grant presented textbooks for a Florida publishing company to to high schools one in Dominique, the other in Grenada.

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The governor also kicked off the Florida scholarship exchange program for 10 students from the Caribbean to attend Florida universities for the next four years. I guess the governor's point of view the week down there was well worth it. Very successful. All right, Jim, thank you very much.

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