Until relatively recently, almost all Caribbean economic thinking has been focused on the encouragement of investment onshore, with the emphasis on commodities, manufacturing, tourism, financial services and artisanal industries such as fisheries. This has been, with some notable exceptions such as financial services, where immediate opportunity lay.
However, now that technology is changing rapidly, preference in trade is all but over, economic globalisation is a reality, and international trade is again growing after the setback of the 2007-08 global financial crisis, there is a pressing need to explore in a much broader way, leveraging the importance of the Caribbean’s physical location. So much so that the promotion of future opportunity in the Caribbean may lie not in advertising what is onshore but, in the broadest sense, creating international awareness of the external market opportunities that arise from its strategic location.
It is an approach that recognises the limitations of the Caribbean’s size, resources and geography, does not look back, accepts globalisation, and understands that there are practical limits to Caribbean notions of sovereignty. It pragmatically accepts that the Caribbean’s future role is as a facilitator for others, whether they be
