Jamaica in international competition

Abstract

This chapter examines Jamaica's performance in international competition. It does so by assessing how well the Jamaican economy has performed over the period of Jamaica's existence as an independent country. The assessment concludes that Jamaica has been outperformed by several regional and extra-regional small economies primarily because the macrostability that is essential to the economic success of small economies has been more elusive in Jamaica's case than in the cases of high-performing small economies. At the same time, there are examples of Jamaican firms, industries and institutions that have consistently performed at internationally competitive levels. The chapter identifies the factors driving competitiveness in these organisations and concludes by recognizing the need for a symbiotic relationship between efficient management at the state and enterprise levels.