Garcia Highlights Gibraltar’s Digital Economy At Commonwealth Business Forum
Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Garcia has highlighted Gibraltar’s investment in digital skills and education during a plenary session at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Antigua and Barbuda.
He spoke about the Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy, which trains around 150 students and 50 adults each year, and said developing the digital economy was key for territories with limited physical space.
A statement from the Government follows below:
The Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Joseph Garcia CMG MP, discussed the development of a new digital economy and its impact on young people and jobs in a plenary session of the Commonwealth Business Forum. This is one of a number of events taking place around the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Antigua and Barbuda.
The Deputy Chief Minister said there were 1.5 billion young people across the Commonwealth and that they were a huge asset which needed to be harnessed through access to education, skills, employers and finance. He lamented that a discussion about young people was taking place with no young person on the panel and only a few in the room.
The Deputy Chief Minister set out a route map based on investment in education and skills, and work with employers in the private sector, as the path to employment and entrepreneurship. He said that while Gibraltar was a small territory in both population and size, it punched well above its weight and its economic impact was much larger than its geographical footprint. He explained that expansion into the digital space was the key for territories with no physical space, and went on to describe what Gibraltar has achieved in this area.
Dr Garcia praised the Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy, which was established in 2021. He said that young children are trained there from the age of six in subjects which are highly relevant to the new economy, including game creation, design, block-based coding and storyboarding. Students then move on to areas such as digital art, cybersecurity and data analysis, and are eventually awarded industry-standard Python qualifications. He said the aim was to make learning interesting and to develop the skills required by the industries coming to Gibraltar. He told the meeting that some 150 students and 50 adults go through the Academy every year.
The Deputy Chief Minister also highlighted the £73 million a year that Gibraltar invests in education at all levels, and said that about 1,000 students from Gibraltar are studying in the UK at any one time. This provides the basis for a highly qualified population ready to meet the challenges of the future.
In addition to the plenary debate, the Deputy Chief Minister took part in two round table discussions, on “Building investment-ready Economies” and “Competing for skills in a global economy”, where he showcased Gibraltar’s achievements to other participants.
The Deputy Chief Minister, who is the Minister with responsibility for developing relations with the Commonwealth, said:
“The Commonwealth is an association of 56 independent states, including the United Kingdom, and His Majesty the King, to whom I was delighted to speak during the event, is its Head. Gibraltar and the other UK Overseas Territories take part in some of its organisations and institutions through the membership of the UK, and in others we do so in our own right, with our own flag, for example at the Commonwealth Games and in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
“Gibraltar has therefore been a proud part of this wider Commonwealth family for many decades.
“It is clear to me from our participation in events of this nature that the countries and territories of the Commonwealth can learn from each other’s experiences across many policy areas and pursue opportunities together. It was obvious from the reaction of other delegates that Gibraltar has a very good story to tell and a role to play.”
