Given these insights and recommendations on the way forward, it was very timely to have the launching of the Caribbean Center for Competitiveness at this forum. This center to be housed at the St Augustine Campus of UWI is receiving support from the IADB and CEDA among others institutions. It was also significant that this initiative was launched by and received the blessing of Prime Minister Kamla Persad Besessiar. This signals a strong commitment by government towards making this nation and the region as a whole, more competitive. Let us hope, as Professor Porter noted in his closing remarks, that these efforts do not come to naught and that we have something tangible to show for it in a few years. That responsibility lies with not only the Government, the university or Center for Competitiveness but with all of us.
Balraj Kistow is a member of faculty, Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business. He can be reached at b.kistow@gsb.tt