substantial economies of scale and scope in public administration, production, distribution and marketing. the current situation is one in which the public sector or the state can be described as over - stretched, given the demands for public goods and services in the context of narrow economic and tax bases. the private sector is constrained by small and undiversified markets and follows the historic trend of being engaged mainly in distribution, wholesale, retail, professional services and construction. activity in the formal segment is to a large extent focused on non - tradeables with a much smaller per cent being in tradeables. this structure is not conducive to facilitating growth as it is anchored in consumption activities. there are two factors which encourage this pattern. first, our geographic location is in close proximity to the largest mass consumption society in the world, which shapes our own consumption patterns. this demonstration effect is transmitted through the media, mainly bis central bankers ’ speeches television, our friends and relatives in the us and frequent visits to that country. the second factor is the presence of a liberal democratic political system with a competitive multiparty system in which many promises are made in order to be elected. the financial system which is dominated by foreign and local commercial banks is aligned to this private sector structure by both history and practice. it is anglo saxon in orientation which means that the banks lend for short term purposes and do not venture into the more risky projects necessary for growth and development. the current economic system can be described by what we term the input - consumptiondefault model. input describes the approach to investment which concentrates on the upfront investment but not the final output. the facts are that, despite high levels of public and private investments, output and growth levels remain low and not related to the inputs. this is as a result of the lack of coordination of these investments, that is, they occur in silos and with limited multiplier effects, because of the choice of projects, and massive inefficiencies leading to wasteful cost over - runs. lack of coordination of policies, programmes and projects is also a major cause of lagging economic growth. this occurs within government, between government and the private sector, and between the countries in the oecs / eccu. the default element is related to the use of policies which are traditional and have not been changed for a long time, policies which have been thrust upon us by external agencies, such as the international financial institutions and donor countries, and

and skillset. transformation necessitates an enabling policy - set with an appropriate financing architecture and accompanying investments. innovation requires collaboration across sectors to successfully deliver transformation. our transformation agenda demands a sense of urgency. 3. the future is now the current pace of technological innovation is simply astounding. an article by max roser, titled “ technology over the long run, ” dated 22 february 2023 and published on ourworldindata. org, is illuminating. the article notes that, whereas it took 2. 4 million years for humanity to learn to manage fire and then harness it to cook, it took a mere 66 years from the first flight ( 1903 ) to the landing on the moon ( 1969 ). given the current pace of technological advancement, we are bearing witness to several technological and scientific leaps during our lifetime. ( slide 6 ) source : roser, m. ( 2023, february 22 ). technology over the long run : zoom out to see how dramatically the world can change within a lifetime. ourworldindata. org. https : / / ourworldindata. org / technology - long - run eastern caribbean central bank p. o. box 89, basseterre, st kitts, west indies not only is the rate of progress accelerating but so is the rate of adoption of these new technologies. an article by pallavi rao, titled “ how long it took for popular apps to reach 100 million users, ” published on the visual capitalist website on 13 july 2023, reported that it took seven years for the number of users of the world wide web to reach 100 million after it was launched in 1991. in contrast, when chatgpt was launched in 2022, it attained the milestone of 100 million users in a mere two months. technological advancements are also spurring a change in the structure of economies and in global trade. data from the world trade organization show that exports of digitally delivered services have soared in recent years. 1 between 2005 and 2022, the value of digitally delivered services exports increased almost fourfold from us $ 1. 0 trillion to us $ 3. 8 trillion globally. the eastern caribbean currency union ’ s ( eccu ’ s ) contribution of these service exports increased from us $ 178. 7 million to us $ 551. 9 million over the same period. evidently, our region has an opportunity to increase its share in this trade, while generating employment for our people. ( slide 7 ) how do we keep