Americas

The Jamaica Exporters' Association (JEA) has formed a subsidiary that has been given the task of improving the export competitiveness of local firms, with the aim of guiding them towards surviving in the global market. The subsidiary, Competitiveness Company, is a partnership between the JEA and the consultancy, On The Frontier.

New York’s Center of Excellence program and other high-tech initiatives are helping to finance the expansion of the biotechnology company OSI Pharmaceutical on Long Island.

A 116 page report by the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness was released last month. It contains a detailed strategy for the state on how to become more competitive nationally and internationally.

The governments of Ontario and Chile's northern Antofagasta region have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at strengthening bilateral mining industry cooperation.

The Multilateral Investment Fund announced on the June, 1 their approval of a $1.7 million grant that will benefit small tourism companies along the Estrada Real in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The Multilateral Investment Fund is an autonomous member of the IDB Group that promotes private sector growth in Latin America and the Caribbean through grants and investments.

A new partnership known as the Forest Research Opportunity B.C. (British Columbia) was recently brought together on the 1st of June. It is a new collaborative forest-research effort in order to harness the research and innovation capabilities present in British Columbia and furthermore to improve the competitiveness of the forest industry and increase the economic and social value of Canada's forests which are vital parts of Canada's economy and society.

The Chilean economic development agency, CORFO, has allocated funds to the salmon cluster in order to channel public and private efforts to strengthen and enlarge the cluster.

The University of Maryland has been selected to establish the new prestigious Sloan Biotechnology Industry Center, a home for high-impact research on the forces driving the competitiveness of the U.S. biotechnology industry. A substantial start-up grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation will help fund this work which is expected to aid the industry to continue developing and increase its overall turnover.

Gérald Tremblay, Chairman of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) and Mayor of Montreal, officially launched the CMM's economic development plan, entitled "Charting Our International Future: A Competitive Montreal Metropolitan Region" on the 9 May.

PAC, the Andean Competitiveness Program has launched its new website http://www.caf.com/pac. It contains some of the latest news, success stories and interviews on competitiveness issues of the five Andean countries: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.