jwala rambarran : imperatives for competitiveness and sustainable development address by mr jwala rambarran, governor of the central bank of trinidad and tobago, at the meeting of the american chamber of commerce of trinidad & tobago, port of spain, 8 july 2013. * * * at the outset, i thank the american chamber of commerce for inviting me to share my views on trinidad and tobago ’ s economic outlook, and to listen to the views of business leaders on imperatives for competitiveness and sustainable development. such insights feed importantly into the central bank ’ s understanding of the workings of the trinidad and tobago economy, and thus into the policy deliberations of the bank. i strongly believe that, especially in these unusual times, this kind of dialogue with the private sector is critical. i probably do not need to tell anyone in this room that we are indeed living in unusual times. policymakers around the world have been grappling for the past six years with an economic crisis, which has repeatedly mutated, and it is still not clear what direction the crisis is going to take next. from its origins as a sub - prime crisis in the united states to its morphing into a sovereign debt crisis in europe, to its current manifestation of fiscal / political gridlocks across both sides of the atlantic, various measures taken to address each mutation of the crisis have led to unintended consequences. just about three months ago, the imf managing director was talking about a three - speed global economy in which emerging markets and developing countries were generally doing well, while some advanced economies like the united states were on the mend. others such as japan and those in the euro area still had some distance to travel. during the last few weeks, sentiment has changed dramatically in global financial markets, again with unintended consequences. markets overreacted to an earlier - than - expected start to the reduction of monetary stimulus in the united states, even though the federal reserve clearly stated that should this commence, it would be done very slowly and would be highly conditional. the surprising intensity of market reaction to the potential end of quantitative easing contributed to a sudden reversal of capital flows in many emerging market economies, sending their currencies tumbling and their stock markets into decline. such volatility may well signal the start of a new mutation of the ongoing global financial crisis. it may well be a forerunner to the new risks that could materialize when unconventional u. s. monetary policy begins to un

issue, one of the central themes addressed by the report to the club looking to the future is education. professor mircea malita, a romanian veteran of the club of rome, identified the potential of education in his 1979 report “ no limits to learning ”, which was like a mirror to the first report. it is him who will reiterate today the topic of education, together with richard ernst, who will present an interesting paper, “ an inseparable pair : education and ethics ”. we will equally have the opportunity to listen today to mr. roberto peccei ’ s “ the significance of limits to growth for the work of the club of rome ”, as well as to the co - authors of the first report, dennis meadows and jorgen randers, who will look at the lessons of the first report nowadays. in the new report, “ 2052 – a global forecast for the next forty years ”, jorgen randers underlines the need to use the values or the lessons of the first report for the future. and actually looking back 40 years, he will look to the next 40 years. we are eager to listen to him to see what the prospects are for the next 40 years. looking at today ’ s agenda, i would like to mention the relationship between humankind and nature. we ’ ll have a special session, where ernst ulrich von weizsacker will discuss bis central bankers ’ speeches about “ factor five : transforming the global economy ” and anders wijkman about “ bankrupting nature ”. i will also address the topic of transforming the financial and monetary system. i am sure that today ’ s debate will bring light to our faces and we will find together the best answers to the future of the humankind. i invite the panellists to start the first session. thank you very much! bis central bankers ’ speeches