Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Edwin Carrington, has urged private/public sector companies in Jamaica and the Caribbean, to form alliances in order to be more competitive in the new globalised economy.

"Companies in both the public and private sector must form crucial alliances which would allow them to deal with that greater level of competition, particularly in third markets… to strengthen investment regime in order to compete whether it be in goods or in services," he noted.

He was addressing the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Annual Awards Banquet at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay recently.

The CARICOM Secretary General pointed out that on the "immediate horizon", there was an opportunity to test the possibilities for collaboration of the type, which the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) would provide.

"The challenge to businessmen of the Region is to get together with other Caribbean partners within the CSME, to provide on a regional basis, the services, equipment, facilities, accommodation, transportation and other requirements, which the organisers would need if we are to ensure that the Cricket World Cup truly comes to the West Indies," Mr. Carrington said.

"The intention of the CSME is that the combining of market resources across the Region would make feasible a number of new production advantages and possibilities, utilising inputs, skills, capital and technology from other Member States and facilitating the organisation of joint production of goods and services, involving enterprises in more than one Member State," he pointed out.

Mr. Carrington said the CSME was an instrument for grasping opportunities in the globalised world, as well as a platform from which to launch the effective integration of economies into the global economy as efficient and competitive players. "The CSME not only provide opportunities to be grasped, but it is also a shield against the onslaught of the negative features of globalisation," he stressed.

The CARICOM Secretary General stressed that the days of reliance on preferences as the historical basis to all economic structures were over, and that the search for niche markets should begin now.