U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS—Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. opened the final plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative Action Network symposium on Tuesday at the University of the Virgin Islands with a message about resilience and finding new ways for the Virgin Islands to deal with a disaster.
“We have to embrace new ideas and new concepts. We have to realize that part of our resilience is not only making sure that our airports and our seaports and our energy is good but making sure that we remember that the Internet is a superhighway of commerce that now we can access that as well, too,” he said.
The Governor also thanked the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative Action Network for the work it is doing to help the Territory – and the Caribbean Region – helps everyone prepare for future emergencies.
“It’s the conversations that we have today that remind us that we can build back the Virgin Islands for today. We can build back the Virgin Islands, or the Caribbean, tomorrow,” the Governor said. “The things that come out of conversations such as we’re having here today are incredible, and on the world stage we are on is certainly fantastic,”
The Governor emphasized that the effort put forth by the CGI Action Network brings together people to come up with new ideas and concepts that make recovering from a disaster easier.
“Amazing people that have the rare chance to sit down together and talk about all of the issues that we have in common and how we can work them out,” Governor Bryan said. “Reminding us that, yes, we are islands in the sea, but this sea has a common thread of history and culture that unites us as Caribbean people. And we don’t sit down and talk about those issues often enough.”
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