Eastern Caribbean countries enjoy rich natural endowments and have achieved significant economic development over recent decades. They have also been confronted with a number of rising economic, social and environmental challenges. To help them tackle these, and accelerate their development, the regional strategy scorecard designed by the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) with the OECD helps policy makers set priorities for the implementation of the OECS Development Strategy, with stronger resilience and capacity as the major guideposts towards further economic growth and social progress.
Caribbean development strategies
As well as shared geography, Caribbean countries have common characteristics in terms of economic assets and structures, social challenges, institutional frameworks, and environmental risks or opportunities. The OECD provides Caribbean policy makers with evidence-based, regional and national analysis, to help them monitor economic trends, learn from each other and craft innovative solutions to the challenges of sustainable development.
Key messages
Caribbean economies are highly exposed to natural disasters, climate change and global economic shocks, with narrow economic bases, small or unstable domestic revenues, and limited borrowing opportunities. Mobilising the necessary finance for their sustainable development thus requires balancing policy reforms aimed at economic diversification, more foreign investment and higher tax revenues with the smart use of international development finance.
Government revenue is the primary source of development finance for any country, and an essential component of the social contract. In the Caribbean, many economies are facing the challenges of increasing revenue while streamlining tax incentives and improving transparency. The OECD works with financial and tax administrations in the Caribbean to create databases of trusted, comparable data, improve collection and combat avoidance.
Context
Developing better skills in the Dominican Republic
The available pool of skills in the Dominican Republic is still relatively limited, due in part to low levels of education, particularly among lower-income groups. Despite progress in national educational attainment, a significant share of the population still has no or low levels of education, even among high-income groups. This is a problem for workers, who struggle to access formal, quality jobs, and for the economy, as it drags down productivity. One of the solutions proposed in the OECD multi-dimensional review of the Dominican Republic is to make educational programmes more responsive to the changing needs of the economy. This requires collecting better and more regular data on the skills demanded by the labour market, as well as on supply shortages.
Increasing the value added rather than volume of Caribbean tourism
Most countries in the Eastern Caribbean already welcome large numbers of tourists every year. Attracting more of them could lead to further pollution, loss of natural habitat, and disruption for local communities. To increase tourism receipts while protecting natural resources, improving existing services is therefore preferable to simply attracting more visitors. As the Figure below shows, value-added levels in tourism are noticeably lower in the Eastern Caribbean than in other, similar economies: there is therefore scope to increase the relative value-added for each tourist arrival. Leveraging the well-developed service sector could increase receipts per visitor, by better meeting the demands of cruise-ship passengers, attracting new tourist segments, and building more consistent hospitality experiences through certifications and training programmes.
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