WASHINGTON, DC – The Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, met with the United States Department of Commerce Deputy Assistant Secretary Walter Bastian and the Minister of Planning of Trinidad and Tobago Bhoendradatt Tewarie on Tuesday, at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC, ahead of the hemisphere’s main meeting on competitiveness, the Americas Competitiveness Forum (ACF).
The 2014 edition of the ACF, scheduled to take place in Port of Spain in October, has attracted the attention of private sector leaders from across the Hemisphere and other parts of the world.
According to Assistant Secretary General Ramdin, the theme of this year’s forum, “The Human Imagination at Work: Driving Competitiveness, Powering Innovation” is designed to stimulate thinking. “There is a collective challenge facing our people, our children, our economies, our institutions and our companies. The challenge is to innovate, evolve and create ideas, to produce sustainable results,” said the OAS official.
The senior official of the OAS, which serves as the Technical Secretariat for the Inter-American Competitiveness Network, said he was pleased with the state of preparations by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and Minister Tewarie for the hemispheric meeting.
“This issue of creativity is not to be underestimated” said Deputy Secretary General Ramdin. “In my experience, progress begins with creativity. Creativity feeds development. Development is sustained by competitiveness.”
Tuesday’s meeting included representatives of the United States private sector and officials of stakeholder organizations.
