Anneke Jessen

From Growth to Prosperity: Policy Perspectives for Trinidad and Tobago

The topics covered in the chapters of the report were presented and discussed in a conference organized by the IDB in Port of Spain on July 13th, 2004. After more than a decade of economic growth and despite encouraging prospects for the future, the Trinidad and Tobagp economy remains overly dependent on the oil and gas sector, the public sector lacks capacity, and pockets of poverty persist. How can the country promote sustainable and equitable development, and thus reduce poverty? The Government of Trinidad and Tobago, in consensus with major stakeholders, has confronted this question in its Vision 2020 - an ambitious program that calls for Trinidad and Tobago to achieve developed-country status by the year 2020. As the country sets out to meet this longer term goal, it must begin to tackle some pressing development challenges in the short to medium term, including economic diversifi cation through private sector development, modernization of the public sector and improved social services. In this context, we believe the timing of this report to be most opportune. To achieve sustainable growth and to benefit its citizens more equitably, the country must continue to grapple with major issues. This report sheds light on some of the most pressing ones.

Barbados: Meeting the Challenge of Competitiveness in the 21st Century

The material within these pages shows that Barbados, a Caribbean country with just over a quarter of a million people, embodies many of the classic vulnerabilities of an island with a small open economy, yet aspires to developed-country status, and is already well advanced on the road to achieving the MDG targets. Viewed in this light, this book raises the question: Is Barbados the little island that can? The authors have approached that question mainly from the point of view of international competitiveness, one of the pillars, along with macroeconomic and financial stability, required for accelerated and sustained growth. Starting with a wide-ranging macroeconomic diagnosis, this monograph examines the strengths and competitiveness challenges facing Barbados from the points of view of the institutional and private sector constraints and environment for competitiveness, labour market conditions and trade policy framework and performance. It also narrows the focus to take a sectoral perspective, examining the leading tourism industry. To convey a sense of the public-policy complexities, the book also includes a brief analysis focusing on the agricultural sector.