The combined population of the Caribbean can be a global resource of tremendous potential for knowledge sharing and competitiveness. This is the view of Trade Minister Vasant Bharath who said collaboration and unifying some aspects of economic policies can "create a larger fiscal space that is stronger to risk and impact and provides more competitive breadth to compete in the global markets."
He said: "We must find the points of convergence in our policies that can allow us to combine our expertise and resources in order to achieve higher value outputs. In finding those points of unification, we will also find greater possibilities for supporting and sustaining a new era of innovation."
Bharath said so when he gave the feature address at the University of the West Indies' (UWI) 6th Biennial International Banking and Finance Conference, Navigating Caribbean Business in the New Global Economy, at the Trinidad Hilton and Conference Centre on Monday.
Commenting on the challenges facing Caribbean businesses the minister said: "Our strategies must therefore focus on understanding the nature and cause of risk, finding the weaknesses that are among the first casualties of impact, and shoring up our resilience as nations, and as a region standing together."
Bharath said a shift has to be made from training professionals for jobs, to incubating entrepreneurs for corporate leadership.
"Tremendous benefits and efficiencies are brought by technology. We must explore how we re-fashion our businesses and industries to shift onto ICT platforms to become visible and active stakeholders in a networked global economy. As a region, we must continue to comprehensively advance training and skills development to provide the world with knowledge capabilities," he said.
"We must also be bold enough to consider whether we are at a tipping point where our growth metrics must shift to different indicators."