Within the new global economy the Caribbean islands will have to reposition themselves, armed with a new vision and a new competitive strategy. The challenge is to move forward by making better use of our traditional comparative advantages and by identifying and promoting new competitive advantages. New niche markets need to be discovered and exploited. Production of non traditional export goods has to be introduced in national economies. Entrepreneurship must present innovative projects.
Labour force needs to be trained according to new demands.
The shift from agricultural export production to a service economy, based fundamentally on tourism, free trade zones, telecommunications, banking, insurance and commerce has played a significant role over the last two decades in helping upgrade the quality of life in the different nations of the region. But now we have to move even further. The revolution that has taken place in the areas of information and communications technologies brings the opportunity to Caribbean nations to skip economic development stages and to leapfrog into a new economic model sustained in a knowledge based economy. The integration of information technologies into a national development strategy can mean the eternal dreamed opportunity of putting an end to the unfulfilled historical tasks of the industrial revolution and of becoming part of the new digital age. To make this dream possible, Caribbean countries must concentrate on the development of telecommunications infrastructure, on establishing a regulatory framework, approving an intellectual properties' rights law and paying special attention to the education of the future workforce.