 Stepping up to the plate
The Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness
By Indera Sagewan-Alli
The Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness is a special project of The UWI’s University Office of Planning and Development. Over the next two years, it will become a landmark institution, facilitating practical and implementable solutions to the region’s competitiveness challenges. As a centralised hub, it will work towards making academia more responsive to market needs by connecting it with private and public sectors in a collaborative drive towards finding sustainable interventions and solutions to the region’s growth malaise.
In its initial phase, the project is co- funded under the Compete Caribbean Programme by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom. It began operating from the 2nd Floor of the Institute of Critical Thinking at the St. Augustine Campus in September 2011 when I was appointed the first Executive Director.
The general objectives of the Centre are to
- increase the institutional capacity of the CARIFORUM region to generate and share world-class and Caribbean-specific knowledge products on private sector development and competitiveness, and
- upgrade the technical capacity of academics as well as public and private sector officials in cutting edge approaches to competitiveness, business climate reforms, clustering and Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs).
Specifically, the Centre will support research and the establishment of a knowledge repository on private sector development and competitiveness; support the development of academic programmes and train a cadre of academics from tertiary institutions in cutting edge approaches to competitiveness and business climate reforms, clustering initiatives and SME development; and support the implementation of training programmes for public sector officials and private sector executives, facilitate closer linkages between the private and public sector and provide policy guidance on issues of competitiveness and private sector development in the region.
Over the next two years, the CCfC will serve as coordinator of a network of institutions studying competitiveness in the region. To strengthen competencies, the Centre will partner with leading international universities and institutions such as the HKSG-Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard University; INCAE - Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development (CLACDS), and the London School of Economics - Spatial Economics Research Centre to offer training programmes for academics to deepen the region’s knowledge capacity in areas such as Structural Transformation and the Microeconomics of Competitiveness, Sustainable Cluster Development, SME Development and Public/Private Sector Dialogue. These programmes will then be rolled out to executives in the private and public sectors within the region.
Further, the Centre will develop a Flagship Executive Programme on Competitiveness and Economic Growth in the Caribbean. This will be a comprehensive training programme on competitiveness including innovative contents and methodologies and incorporating case studies and best practices from the region. It will be offered by the CCfC to regional universities, public officials and private sector executives. E-learning products on competitiveness will also be designed and offered to a wider audience. In this period also, the CCfC will host two regional conferences on competitiveness for academics, public and private sector executives. The Centre will host a database and information hub on competitiveness and growth of the region; collaborating with regional universities and other institutions to develop and maintain a linked network of knowledge and research on competitiveness.
The CCfC will also play an important role in providing an independent forum for public and private sector dialogue on issues of competitiveness and growth. To this end, the Centre will be the technical secretariat for Compete Caribbean’s “Conversations on Growth” Initiative. This is intended to be a series of high level public-private dialogues in CARIFORUM member countries to better understand the economic structures of the countries, the historical and potential future drivers of economic growth and the microeconomic underpinnings of high levels of debt and work towards defining new approaches and interventions to enhance economic growth. The outputs of this initiative will consist of individual national private sector development reports, an OECS private sector development report and a CARICOM private sector development report.
In essence, the Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness is poised to play a catalytic role in enhancing regional private sector competitiveness towards sustained economic growth. It is intended to be an institution which synergizes its activities with other institutional arrangements already in place and as such will focus heavily on building strategic partnerships and networks. More than ever, the University must play a transformative role in the economic future of the region. The challenges of global recession, declining traditional export earning sectors and competitiveness constraints call for innovative solutions which can best be driven by research and development through the region’s intellectual capacity. The CCfC is committed to playing its part in building on existing platforms and forging new strategies to engender sustained regional competitiveness.
Economist Indera Sagewan-Alli is Executive Director of the Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness. |
