Steps are being taken to come up with an index to measure the competitiveness of exports in Barbados and the rest of the region.
Minister responsible for Energy Senator Darcy Boyce said it is important to understand linkages and how they impact on the level of competitiveness of exports.
Addressing a European Union-funded two-day conceptualisation workshop at Baobab Tower, Warrens, last week, he said it was critical to pay attention to the quality of performance of the linkages between the export earning sectors and the other industries.
“We do not construct an export competitiveness index merely to know how well we are doing in absolute terms, but to know how well we are doing compared to other countries in the region and in the rest of the world. The index we construct must therefore have a viable counterpart in those countries with which we compete,” he said.
“Our index must also guide us to those factors that we need to adjust when we seek constantly to incrase our competitiveness.”
Caribbean Export Development Agency executive director Pamela Coke-Hamilton described the lack of data as embarrassing.
She said that while regional exports totalled US$51 billion in 2013, there is no measurement of the areas of systems that hinder or enable them.
Hamilton said this must change to begin measuring product uniqueness, benchmark small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and examine economies of scale, among other areas.
“It is our vision that by developing the [export competitiveness index], decision makers in CARIFORUM states will be better able to understand the competitiveness of their exports, make the necessary adjustments to the types of business support services provided to exporters, amend national export strategies and ultimately revise regulations and policies to improve the overall business environment for exporters, redouunding to the benefit of SMEs,” she said.
