Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding on Tuesday launched the largest donor-funded regional private sector development program in the Caribbean.
With a focus on increasing growth and creating jobs, “compete Caribbean” recognizes that competitiveness is particularly important to Caribbean small states
if they are to overcome the inherent limitations posed by their size and take advantage of global trade opportunities.

Reports from the event say that the program will work with governments, regional organizations and the private sector to develop better policies and strategies
to promote private sector growth; to improve the investment climate and to cut red tape. And through a Challenge Fund, to provide grants to firms that seek to develop innovative products and services for export.
No information was immediately available on whether the program would be accessible in Montserrat.

Private sector investment in Montserrat supposedly being spearheaded by the Montserrat Development Corporation has proven be a dismal failure and responsibilities if any for the attendant circumstances have not been revealed. Officially, there’s been as yet nothing to explain what went wrong, and in particular, why is it that the highly skilled, highly paid managers appointed to direct the affairs of the organization were unable to deliver its objective of private sector revitalization.

Furthermore, promised investigations and corrective measures alike continue after two years to yield nothing. Some analysts have therefore reasoned that this must certainly be an impediment to further funding,
whether from Compete Caribbean itself or any similarly targeted source of private sector support.

Attending the launching ceremony in Jamaica, Britain’s Minister of State for International Development, Alan Duncan, joined prime minister Golding in addressing the guests. Currently on a three-day visit to the region, Duncan, praised the partnership between the UK’s DFID, Canada’s CIDA and the Inter American Development Bank that developed the Compete Caribbean initiative. He noted that “Growth was poor in the Caribbean even before the global downturn and declared that Tinkering at the edges of the problem won't work.

Whether drawing directly on Montserrat’s lack luster experience or not, the British Minister went on to suggest that The Caribbean must find new markets to increase exports and create jobs and he affirmed that Compete Caribbean aims to do exactly this.”
The US$40 million Compete Caribbean program is a five-year initiative, developed in consultation with governments, regional institutions and private sector bodies, as a response to the need for greater coordination among development agencies.

Delivering the keynote address, Golding said, “The launch and implementation of the Compete Caribbean Program is appropriate and timely since it adds to the work already identified in the region and brings new energy, resources, and further strength and velocity to development.” He added that in terms of competitiveness policy, the region must “move from policy direction to policy execution. Golding declared: “The urgency is not at the doorstep. The urgency is upon us now.”

Meanwhile, Executive Director, for Compete Caribbean, Jose Jorge Saavedra, highlighted that “improving competitiveness is the key to success for every country in the globalized economy of the 21st Century, asserting that it is also the predominant issue that will determine what kind of economic future lies ahead for the Caribbean”. END

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