News Releases

2nd Caribbean Competitiveness Forum Goes Beyond the Solutions

For Release Upon Receipt - January 23, 2014

St. Augustine


 

ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – The Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness (CCfC), SALISES, The University of the West Indies (UWI) is partnering with the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica to host the 2nd Caribbean Competiveness Forum, March 18-19, 2014, at The UWI Mona Campus. The first Caribbean Competitiveness Forum was held in Port of Spain in 2012. 

The 2014 theme “Beyond the Solutions: Competitiveness through Global Value Chains, Clustering and Innovation” focuses on four critical areas identified by regional governments as sectors with significant potential for growth. These are: services, agro-processing, manufacturing and emerging industries.  

Vice-Chancellor Nigel E. Harris, who is fully committed to the forum, notes that while the main target audience is private sector enterprises, active participation from other key stakeholders such as the public sector, academia and non-governmental institutions is expected. 

Participants will have the opportunity to share experiences and learn from real regional success stories. In this way they will take away practical lessons and gain insight into marketing, export and distribution strategies from the region’s best. Clinics conducted after each forum session will allow participants to develop solutions to problems that are faced by their companies through a collaborative process facilitated by industry experts.  

Indera Sagewan-Alli, CCfC Director indicates that there will be exposure to the importance of clustering, value chain analysis and innovation to business development. In addition, participants will be able to strengthen and build regional networks during the two days. Further, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will be given the opportunity to showcase and market their range of products in the booth spaces provided at the venue.  

Interested persons should email the Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness of The UWI at ccfc@sta.uwi.edu or visit www.uwi.edu/ccfc for further information and to register. 

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About The UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.) 

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