Politics
According to CDB – Caribbean must get fiscal house in order
“It is almost a situation of you need to change the wheels while the bus is moving so that even as you adjust the fiscal and debt situation you need to be also putting in place those things which will allow you to change the structure of your economy and be able to be more competitive,” Smith added.
Ram also called on the region to address pressing structural deficiencies stifling the region’s competitiveness. These include the cost of doing business and high energy costs. “At the moment if we were to compare what’s happening in Caribbean economies as oppose to what’s happening in Singapore we find for example that it takes six months to acquire construction permits on average in the Caribbean to 26 days in Singapore and with respect to enforcement of contracts within the Caribbean on average it takes 772 days as opposed to 150 days in Singapore.”
“I should also add that for Caribbean economies the average cost of electricity is very high…so for example electricity cost are around 35US cents per kilowatt this is far too high,” Ram said.
Copyright Caribbean360 2014
