The Government of St. Lucia via the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council is seeking to encourage increased levels of competitiveness within St. Lucia via the development of a Competitiveness Agenda. From March 4thto 8th the consultant hired to develop the Competitiveness Agenda solicited input from key stakeholders on the various pillars of competitiveness which drive economic growth.
The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC) via funding from Compete Caribbean commenced work on the National Competitiveness agenda for St. Lucia. The National Competitiveness Agenda once completed will provide the NCPC with the framework to measure how well St. Lucia is performing as it relates to various actions, policies and initiatives undertaken to improve the island’s competitiveness. Fiona Hinkson is the Director of the NCPC.
“When you speak of competitiveness it’s important to benchmark yourself. So the World Economic Forum has established twelve pillars of competitiveness by which countries are to measure themselves in terms of how well they are doing in relation to competitiveness.”
Hinkson noted that the twelve pillars of competitiveness are broken down into four main categories first of which is the creation of the enabling environment.
“The second category the human capital where you look at the skill of the population as well as the health of the population, markets in terms of trade, how well you’re doing in that area and the innovation ecosystem, looking at the ease of doing business environment as well as the innovation capability.”
Product Development Consultant with Compete Caribbean, Dr. Kieron Swift is part of a two man team interfacing with various stakeholders on island soliciting their input for the development of the St. Lucia’s Competitiveness Agenda.
“The Competitiveness agenda for St. Lucia is really expected to help bring together a lot of the work, a lot of the studies and analysis that have gone before in terms of identifying St. Lucia’s particular economic strength, particular vision and direction it wants to go and really bring those together to help the coordination of the action the implementation of the recommendations that would have been brought forward.”
He noted that Compete Caribbean operates on the perspective that in order to have a strong and resilient Caribbean, you need a strong and resilient private sector. Carlos Diez is the Director of Entrepreneurial Competitiveness with Infyde, the consultants hired by Compete Caribbean to develop the Competitiveness Agenda for St. Lucia. Infyde is a private international consultancy firm based in Spain specializing in economic development policies and innovation strategies for national and regional government around the world.
“In this week we will have a lot of interviews and round tables with representatives of the pillars the competitiveness of the country and the focus of these meetings is to gather information about the competitiveness and productivity situation of the country.”
The NCPC Director noted that the formulation of the competitiveness agenda for St. Lucia will involve multiple consultations with the private sector, civil society organizations, the youth among others important stakeholders.