ECONOMIC

ACTIVITY
At the end of this presentation, you should be able
to:
1. Define primary, secondary, tertiary activities
2. Name and locate primary, secondary and
tertiary activities in the Caribbean.
3. Explain the relative importance of primary,
secondary and tertiary activities to the
Caribbean
4. Explain the factors influencing the location of
industries in the Caribbean
GENERAL
CLASSIFICATION
OF ECONOMIC
ACTIVITIES
CLASSIFICATION OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
EXTENSIVE CLASSIFICAITION
OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

TERTIARY
SECTOR
SECONDAR QUATERNA
Y SECTOR RY SECTOR

CLASSIFICATI
PRIMARY ON OF QUINARY
SECTOR ECONOMIC
ACTIVITIES
SECTOR
CLASSIFICATION & TERTIARY
EXAMPLES OF ECONOMIC Provide a service and
ACTIVITIES employs the majority of
the population in the
Caribbean) in the
PRIMARY following areas:
SECONDAY 
QUATERNAR
Those that take natural Education
resources out of Earth. 
Y
Involves the production of Tourism
Includes the following: processed goods. Many uses
raw materials from the  Teaching Provides information and expertise.
 farming, Includes activities such as:
primary sector and used them
 Health 
 fishing, to make products for sale) Training, research, development
 Ship building  Retailing
 forestry,
 Construction
 mining and
quarrying  Processing and
QUINARY
manufacturing "gold collar" professions, the sector
 The production of

focus on interpretation of existing or the
raw materials (oil in Smelting
new ideas, evaluation of new
Trinidad)  Textile production technologies, and the creation of
services involves highly paid
professionals, research scientists, and
government officials
Names And Locations Of Primary, Secondary And Tertiary Activities
In The Caribbean

PRIMARY SECTOR
 Forestry: Guyana, Belize, Bahamas, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago
 Fishing: Cuba, Belize, Guyana, Netherland Antilles
 Bauxite: Jamaica, Guyana and Suriname
 Oil and Natural Gas: Trinidad and Tobago
SECONDARY SECTOR
 Food Processing: CARICOM countries (e.g. Jamaica, Barbados,
Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana
 Garment Manufacturing: St. Kitts and Nevis
TERTIARY SECTOR
 Tourism: Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico
 Financial Services: Cayman Islands, Netherland Antilles
 Importance of Economic
Activity in The Caribbean
 All four types of economic activity are
important in the Caribbean but their
relative importance varies from place
to place and changes overtime.
 Up until the 20th century most of the
Caribbean’s income came from the
primary sector (Agriculture) with the
production of valuable crops such as
sugarcane, banana and nutmeg.
 Importance of
Economic Activity in
The Caribbean
As countries become more economically
developed, fewer people work in
agriculture, while secondary and tertiary
activities became more important for
example:
 Garment manufacturing in St. Kitts and
Nevis; Food Processing and the drinks
industry in Jamaica; electrical goods in
Barbados and Cement Manufacturing in
Guadeloupe.
 Tourism in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Dominican
Republic, Cuba and many other Caribbean
Islands.
 Financial Services in Bermuda, the Cayman
Importance of Economic Activity in The Caribbean

Trinidad & Tobago Jamaica

ECONOMIC BENEFITS
1. JOB CREATION
 Keeping a country’s population in work is one
of the main aims of any government. People
with jobs pay taxes to the government which
uses this money for services such as health
and education.
 Unemployed people may have to be
supported by the state through payments or
through providing services at subsided rates.
 Working people, on the other hand, help to
build the society by the work that they do and
they help to pay for the services by their
contribution of personal income taxes/
ECONOMIC BENEFITS
2. FOREIGN EXCHANGE
EARNINGS
 All governments need
foreign exchange to pay for
goods and services from 3. GOVERNMENT
overseas. REVENUE
 Money paid for exports will  Governments also take in
often be in US dollars and taxes from companies and
this is useful for businesses operating in
governments that want to their country. This money
buy things from other can be spent on
countries. infrastructure, such as
roads, port services and
education for the people.
 A better infrastructure will
attract more foreign
exchange into the country.
 OTHER BENEFITS
5.Development of
infrastructure
 A portion of monies earned 6.Transport and trade
from economic activities  Economic activities
goes towards the national stimulate and increase
income in the form of taxes. transportation and
These taxes are used to trade via land air and
develop infrastructure: sea routes. The goods
roads, ports etc. must be moved from
 Investors are encourage to place to place, so the
set up in the Caribbean. In more economic
doing so, they sometimes activity there is in a
put in the infrastructure as region the more
well. This further benefit the movement of goods
country as a whole. and people there is.
EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE
 Different countries have very different numbers
of people in each sector of their economy.
 The importance of tourism to the entire
Caribbean means there are very large numbers
of people working in the service sector.
 In much of the rest of the world, service
industry jobs are normally concentrated in what
is called the public sector-jobs provided by
government (e.g. Health, education, tax
collection and local government).
 While these jobs are provided in the Caribbean,
many people are employed selling goods in gift
shops, working in hotels and providing services
such as guided tours for visiting cruise ships.
 EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE
 Everybody who has a job needs somewhere to spend he
money they earn on food and manufactured goods and other
services.
 They will often spend their money locally, contributing to
the economy of their own country and giving money to
retailers who then employ other people.

 When employment on
one sector increases
employment in others,
it is called the
multiplier effect. The
more people there are
in work, the greater the
effect is.
EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE IN DEVELOPED &
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

 Numbers employed in various economic sectors in selected

developed and developing countries as a percentage of the
total workforce
EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE IN THE
CARIBBEAN

 Numbers employed in various economic sectors in selected

Caribbean countries as a percentage of the total workforce
THE INFORMAL ECONOMY
CHARACTERISTICS AND EXAMPLES
THE INFORMAL
ECONOMY
 An informal economy is
the part of any
economy that is
neither taxed nor
monitored by any form  Informal sector workers
of government. do a variety of jobs
 Although the informal including:
sector makes up a  Selling goods to people
significant portion of at traffic lights
the economies in  Setting up market stalls
developing countries, it
 Cleaning shoes
is sometimes
stigmatized as  Making repairs to
troublesome and furniture in backstreet
unmanageable. shops
 THE INFORMAL
ECONOMY
 The workers often have limited
education and contribute little, if
anything, in the way of taxes.
 However, as they make a success
of their small businesses, many
try to get an education, find a
better job and so enter the formal
sector.
 Developing countries often have high
rates of unemployment and
underemployment.
 With many people migrating from the
country areas to work in towns and
cities, many become self-employed,
often working in the informal sector.
 A
Comparison
of the Formal
and Informal
Sectors
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE LOCATION OF
INDUSTRIES IN THE CARIBBEAN

Most industries and major economic

activities have specific needs, which affect
where they are set up. Older, or traditional,
industries in developed countries needed to:
 Be near raw materials
 Have a reliable power source (originally
water, then coal)
 Be close to the market where the goods
were sold, as transporting them by horse
and cart or by canal would have been
difficult (roads and rail transport was not
yet developed).
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE LOCATION OF
INDUSTRIES IN THE CARIBBEAN

 In the Caribbean, many of the factors that

influenced industrial location in developed
countries are less important.
 As island are generally small, there is often
easy access to a port where goods can
be taken for export. However, many of the
factors to be discussed are common
throughout the world.
 In the countries of the Caribbean, the
significance of different industrial location
factors depends on the local situation. For
example, the setting up of free trade zone
areas by the government of Dominican
Republic has helped to increase trade.
 FACTORS INFLUENCING THE LOCATION OF
INDUSTRIES IN THE CARIBBEAN

Industries Factors to consider:

Explain the Factors
Influencing the Location of  Raw materials
the Following Industries  Energy
 Fishing in St. Maarten/St.  Transport
Martin
 Market
 Bauxite in Jamaica
 Labour
 Food Processing within
 Capital
CARICOM and Singapore
 Role of government
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE LOCATION OF INDUSTRIES IN THE
CARIBBEAN
Terms to Know
 Economic activity- all the businesses and industries in a country that make money.
 Exports – products that are made to be sold to another country
 GDP - the total value of all goods and services produced in a country
 GDP per capita- the total value of all goods and services produced in a country divided by the
population
 Globalisation – the increasing social and economic connections between countries around the world
 Imports – goods bought from one country by another
 Multiplier effect- employment in one sector/area increases and as aresult employment in other
sectors increases too.
 Newly industrialised countries (NICs)- countries that have had rapid growth in their
manufacturing industries since the 1950s – they are mainly in Developing World- China, India,
Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, South Africa, Turkey, Brazil, and Mexico are commonly considered
NICs.
 Raw material – the things used by an industry to make a product. They can be natural or processed.
 Tariff – a tax that a government charges to importers of foreign goods. Tariffs increase the prices of
imported goods.
 Trade – the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers.