Found at: http://www.competitiveness.org/article/articleprint/672/-1/8/
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.
Competitiveness Company shall be funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID).
The company also represents the second phase of the Jamaica Cluster Competitiveness Project (JCCP) that the JEA developed and launched in September 2002 with the objective of improving the competitiveness of SMEs.
The aim of the first phase of JCCP was to learn about competition and firms working together in clusters to ensure the sector in which they operate becomes viable in Jamaica and the world. It was noted that in the long term, it would be difficult for Jamaican firms to remain competitive working on their own, so firms in the same kind of business should support each other and do things cooperatively by working in clusters to ensure that as a nation they are competitive.
Beverley Morgan, a director of the JEA and head of the new company, pointed to research which she said supported the move towards engendering cooperation. She declared that countries that are renowned for their collaboration and clustering had the highest per capita income and the highest human development indicators. Moreover, companies that collaborated and groups that clustered did far better than those that worked on their own.
"The Competitiveness Company will create a space where the small and medium enterprises can work together in an environment that is open, respectful, inquiring and supportive for all to thrive and do well for the benefit of the nation," she said.
The new firm shall provide market research, help firms establish linkages with new distribution channels in local and overseas markets, and help to forge and co-ordinate clusters -functions which the JEA believes will ultimately help to drive exports.
The firm is being staffed by Jamaicans trained as competitiveness fellows who will serve as co-ordinators and advisors to firms and clusters in Jamaica. The first competitiveness fellow is Sean Scott, a graduate of Stanford University, who majored in political science and economics, focusing on international development.
In his presentation at the launch of the new frim, Scott suggested that improving the competitiveness of local companies, would create opportunities for Jamaicans now pursuing careers overseas to return, thus reversing the "brain drain".
Source: BBC News online