UPM drops plans for future trends report

(CNS): Efforts by former premier Wayne Panton to address the chronic information gap in the Cayman Islands and find out more about the demographic, economic, environmental and social trends shaping the country and what direction it should go over the coming decades have been scrapped by the UPM.

In 2023, the premier’s office opened a request for proposals for experts to compile a report to give government leaders and the private sector a better understanding of local trends to make better policy and business decisions. However, following Panton’s removal from office, the request was cancelled before a contract was awarded.

Panton told CNS that he had embarked on the process to understand the trends and drivers shaping Cayman’s future and the needs and priorities of its people. He said the country doesn’t have this type of information, which poses a challenge to the government’s ability to understand what the future may hold and to respond to the risks and opportunities of that future.

“Not having this information also poses a threat to the resilience of the country and its ability to prepare for future threats,” Panton told CNS.

He explained that the aim was to pull together a range of information and data in one place to help policymakers and the broader public prepare for potential future scenarios for the Cayman Islands. If the government had the information it needed to identify opportunities and threats facing the country, it could prioritise longer-term policy or resources with the aim of preventing costly social, environmental or economic problems in the future.

But shortly after he resigned as premier, just as the RFP had wrapped up and researchers were about to be awarded a contract, the RFP process was cancelled. Given the $1 billion budget required to run the government and the value of the information that would have come out of the project, its estimated cost, which was well under $200,000, wasn’t a particularly expensive endeavour. He said he was surprised and puzzled over why the initiative had been cancelled.

CNS has made repeated attempts to contact Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly’s office, both directly and through the government’s communications department, but we have not received a response to our questions about the reasons for the cancellation of the RFP and whether or not the government intends to redo it or do the work in-house.

The lack of comprehensive data in government has historically contributed to poor decisions. But after taking office as premier and forming the PACT government, the group of independent MPs had agreed, as a government, that everything it would deliver would be based on the needs and wishes of Caymanians.

To do that they needed to understand the long-term aspirations of the people they serve, the drivers of change, the future trends and scenarios related to risks and opportunities.

At the start of 2023, Panton said Cayman needed to define a shared vision, establish a list of priorities for a sustainable future and decide on the kind of physical, economic and social development and at what pace. Undertaking the type of research and collecting the data envisioned in the Future Trends report was critical to that aim.

In a speech after being voted into office, Panton spoke about the widely held perception that Caymanians had failed to benefit from the rapid development and economic growth of the last decade.

Excessive physical development and a growing population have continued since, but the UPM has not made any moves to address the fundamental problems that have fuelled Caymanians’ commonly held view that their country is lost.

Local people feel they have lost control of the future of the Cayman Islands due to dwindling public access to beaches, the erosion of Seven Mile Beach, the development of luxury properties pricing local people out of the housing market, the rapid and recent population increase due to increasing low-paid labour, the failure of Caymanians to advance in the workplace, alarming traffic congestion, the continued absence of a public transport policy, a shortage of schools, and problems over access to healthcare.

See the original documents that were issued for the RFP below.