THE urgent need for Jamaica and the rest of the English-speaking Caribbean to start focusing on ways to benefit from opportunities arising from the current global economic crisis was highlighted Monday by vice-president of GraceKennedy Money Services, Noel Greenland.

Speaking to regional trade unionists at the opening of a seminar/workshop at the Alhambra Inn, Tucker Avenue, Kingston, Greenland suggested that it was time for the region’s leadership to recognise the need to focus on how to maximise the benefits that will arise.

“Let us ask ourselves this fundamental question: What if the crisis were to end tomorrow? What would be our lesson from that? What would we take, as a people, coming out of this crisis?

“I put to you, my friends, that maybe the single most important thing that we can do to get us on that path to recognising our opportunities is for us to focus on them, and there are so many good things that we have as a region and as a people we need to focus on them now,” Greenland stated.

He called on the leadership within the region to recognise that things need to be done, and while a few opportunities have been identified, there was optimism that there are many unrecognised opportunities out there.

“Our roots are here, but our branches spread far and wide, right across the world,” he said as he proposed the Caribbean Diaspora as one area still be to be fully exploited.

He suggested that the region ask itself the question: “What will be my legacy, or our legacy from this crisis?”

The seminar/workshop is being hosted by UNI Americas of which local trade unions — the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU) and the Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP) are affiliates — and the Friederich Ebert Stiftung (FES) of Germany, which focuses on issues such as trade liberalisation and integration within the region.

The workshop, being held under the theme “Building Union Power and Global Framework Agreements in (Regional) Multinational Enterprises”, is scheduled to end tomorrow with a press conference at the Alhambra Inn.

Issues being tackled include: Implications of CSME and Financial Regulation on the Caribbean Finance Sector; Challenges Facing Caribbean Women and Youth in the Financial Services Sector; Strategic Organising for Caribbean Finance Sector; and Strategic Collective Bargaining for Caribbean Finance Sector.