And now that he's been sworn in, his work in Toledo East can technically begin. Dr Martinez is all about the data, and he's deduced that his priority should be creating employment opportunities within his division. He explained that historically, that's always been an issue in the south.
Dr Osmond Martinez, Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Trade
"Creation of jobs. It's very important, when you look at Punta Gorda and the surrounding villages in Toledo East, unemployment is very high and it has been historically, even when you look at the historical data from 1981, that's one of the biggest challenges, to create jobs and to even sustain jobs in Toledo East so that's an important part and the second one is to increase our human capital and the only way we will be able to do it is through education. And when we talk about education, we need to be able to diversify our expertise and at some point we may need to upscale and re-skill the labor force to mitigate the mismatch on the supply and demand within the labor force that we presently have. So those are the two things that we want to accomplish and those are the outcomes, to increase the human capital and to be able to increase the income per capita through sustainable jobs."
