Caricom states must do better

By Sir Ronald Sanders

ONLY one Caricom country made the top 50 countries in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011. Barbados is rated at 43 of 139 countries surveyed.

Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Guyana were rated 84, 95, and110 respectively.
No other Caricom country was rated because of a lack of survey data.

This is not good news for Caricom, already beset by severe economic problems including high debt to GDP ratios, increasing unemployment, and contracting economies.

Barbados' higher ranking over the three other Caricom countries surveyed is due, according to the report, to its better health and educational facilities and technological readiness, but it got poor marks for inefficient government bureaucracy, access to financing, a poor work ethic among the labour force and foreign currency regulations.

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