The net result is that developing countries now face the competitive challenges of international markets as equal partners with all other countries. Many services like telecommunications, hitherto the obligations of public service have practically yielded to profit and private interests. In the case of telecommunications, we have now entered the era of information as merchandise, in which telecommunications is more and more a traded service, provided on a competitive basis by suppliers ranging from public to private, domestic and foreign. The new circumstances challenge the emerging markets of the Caribbean in significant ways. In particular, they offer opportunities for growth in spite of the increased risk and competition.
Competition is one of the greatest forces of structural reorganisation of our societies.
It reduces and continues to reduce the power of governments through a shift in the financial power base from the public to the private sector. At the same time it causes states to assume greater social responsibility for the effects of such restructuring. To beat the competition and satisfy shareholders, most companies resort to job cuts. They must at the same time be open to the opportunities which may be derived from such changes, since it is the changes themselves which will dictate the type of responses which will make for increased profitability. Today a major change is the shift from the official price-rigging agreement among companies to widely fluctuating prices underpinned by a number of strategies.