Clusters in the Caribbean

CLUSTERS IN THE CARIBBEAN

With globalization and international competition, small and medium sized enterprises are finding that protectionist measures by government are quickly eroding, bringing opportunities for new markets, but also new threats to their survival. Consequently, SMEs need to adopt strategies to deal with this new competitive landscape. One such strategy that is quickly being adopted is business clusters. SMEs have realized that collectively, firm competitiveness can be increased by adopting agglomeration strategies. (Caniels and Romijin 2003) (Fassoula 2006). The Couva, Point Lisas district attests to the success of such a strategy among SMEs in Trindad and the region. While there are a few large multinational firms geographically concentrated in this area, there is a much larger population of SMEs producing specialized services at all levels of the value chain.

The current government of Trinidad and Tobago is convinced that SME's are the 'engine of growth' of the economy contributing significantly to employment, business development and poverty reduction. The last reported figures of 2010 indicate that SMEs accounted for approximately 18,000 registered firms, employing about 200,000 persons and contributing nearly 28% to GDP.

Recently, there have been many studies of SMEs and the adoption of the cluster strategies in developing countries like Brazil, Mexico and the Latin American continent as well as in areas such as Pakistan, India, Singapore, Thailand. Currently, in light of a diversification drive to reduce the dependency of the Trinidad and Tobago's economy on the petrochemical industry, the Ministry of Planning has partnered with institutions from the private sector and academia to pursue initiatives in order to create an enabling competitive business environment involving cluster initiatives and SMEs throughout Trinidad.