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Industrial Design and Competitiveness
Malcolm Spence Senior Coordinator, Intellectual Property, Science and Technology Issues Of?ce of Trade Negotiations (OTN) “Industrial design is the professional service of creating and developing concepts and speci?cations that optimize the function, value and appearance of products and systems for the mutual bene?t of users and manufacturers.” -Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) The small open economies of the Caribbean have relied for decades on being able to produce and provide commodity products to proximate markets more competitively in terms of price than producers from further locations. As the decreasing costs of the international production and distribution of similar or substitute commodities decreased the relative competitiveness of Caribbean producers, they began to rely more and more heavily on their competitive position being protected through advantageous market conditions in preference to their competitors. These preferential market conditions have now been eroding for some time and so there is an urgent need to identify new competitive strategies that would differentiate Caribbean products, both goods and services, in ways that would make consumer choices less sensitive to price differences. The creativity of the Caribbean has been recognized globally in many ?elds, although it is more particularly known in the arts than the sciences. Clear examples of course lie within music and entertainment services, including literature. But in very few ?elds has this creativity through the use of clear artistic merit been applied to globally competitive industrial output. Those niches where this has occurred have rarely, if ever, expanded beyond the artisanal or small-scale production for local or regional markets. Examples largely arise in the fashion industry in the area of clothing and accessories design and production, including jewelry, handbags and shoes. This limitation in global expansion no doubt also demonstrates, amongst other things, the lack of application of relevant industrial skill to abundant artistic output.
Volume 4: July - September 2012
What can be done One globally competitiv ??
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