Source: http://worldcityweb.com/home/MIA/publications/magazine/41/784/

Boosting the service sector

by WC

Central America and the Caribbean are reducing their reliance on traditional exports and briskly working to develop their service sector, according to Inter-American Development Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno.

The region is also undertaking billions of dollars in infrastructure projects, including highways, dams, water systems, fiber-optic lines and electric grids. The latter is designed to hedge the region’s exposure to volatile energy prices, Moreno said.

“Economies that once relied entirely on commodity exports are moving aggressively into services,” Moreno told participants at the recent Miami Conference on the Caribbean Basin. Caribbean-Central American Action (CCAA) sponsored the event.

“Each year a number of U.S. citizens choose to get medical degrees at universities in the Caribbean, for example, and market analysts estimate that the number of people employed in Caribbean call centers will nearly double between 2006 and 2007 to nearly 40,000 agents. This so-called ‘near-shoring’ industry barely existed a few years ago, and now it is growing at 40 percent per year,” said the IDB president.

CCAA President Federico Sacasa warned that Caribbean nations must continue to move forward with the integration process. Edwin Carrington, secretary general of the Caribbean Community, added that the region needs to continue to improve its competitiveness and its business climate as it moves toward a single economy.

Moreno agreed.

“The region can no longer afford to approach its problems with timidity,” said the IDB official. “Despite the significant gains of the last decade, the region’s economies are still not competitive enough, and they are still far too vulnerable to external factors.”