Economist Marla Dukharan has often described the Cayman Islands as the best-run jurisdiction in the Caribbean, praising its ability to chart its own path towards economic success.
However, in her most recent report, ‘Population, progress, and the people of the Cayman Islands’, she describes a quickly growing population with little data available on sustainable limits.
The 25-page document says an “implementation deficit plague” has prevented the Cayman Islands Government from executing strategies to modernise its development framework.
“Ultimately, the responsibility rests with the authorities to make it all make sense,” the report, published on 7 July, says.
“To plan properly to accommodate the foreign labour and tourists that they allow to enter, and to avoid and mitigate the negative effects on their people as far as possible.”
Cayman’s population has doubled in the past 22 years, largely due to growth in the foreign labour, placing increasing pressure on housing, waste management and traffic infrastructure.
Paired with the lack of a study assessing sustainable growth limits, there is an information deficit that prevents development of coherent policy, the report says.
“We have no clue from an ecological standpoint what population size could be comfortably sustained and how in the Cayman Islands, especially in Grand Cayman,” it continues.
Dukharan said carrying capacity data is essential for making decisions about continued population growth through work permits and inward migration.
However, despite the report’s concerns, she sees potential for Cayman to tackle its vast infrastructure demands and forge a more intentional path forward.
“I think if any country can do it, it’s Cayman,” she told Cayman Independent after the report’s publication.
“You’re small enough. The economy in Cayman is not as complex, and you don’t have the kind of social issues that say Trinidad has or Jamaica has.”
By her report’s own estimate, that will mean tripling the rate of building construction for a decade to keep pace with housing needs, as well as investment in roads, sewer systems and other necessary infrastructure.
The ability to tackle these demands will spell real consequences, the report explains, for quality of life and cost of living in Cayman.
“In the absence of a plan, with their eyes wide shut, the people of the Cayman Islands are heading towards an unknown population size, by default,” the report concludes.
Dukharan has opened an anonymous survey asking Caymanians directly how they feel about the territory’s growth, with results expected to be published in September.
The survey, which will be open for submissions until the end of the month, can be accessed here.
