1. Advancing Reinaldo Gonsalves’ Model of Global Economic Insertion:  Opportunities for the English Speaking Caribbean with Global Digital Connectivity
By Ian W. Walcott

2. Overview Introduction – Gonsalves’ Model of Global Economic Insertion
What is Global Digital Connectivity?
Openness in Liberal Democracies
Current Caribbean Reality in the face of the Digital Revolution
Opportunities for English-speaking Caribbean
Returning to Gonsalves
Conclusion

3. What is Global Insertion? The Reinaldo Goncalves Model
Commercial openness = coefficient of exports over GNP;
Financial openness = ratio of foreign debt to GNP;
Third level of openness
“real production”
the amount of foreign direct investment (FDI)
the portion of capital stock detained by multinational corporations (MNCs)

4. What is Global Insertion
What is Global Insertion? New Consideration – Global Digital Connectivity
Brave new world where international actors and global citizens are explicitly connected to each other in real time by and through enabling technologies.

5. What is Driving this Connectivity?
Advancement of broadband, nanotechnology and data compression;
Global banking and finance industry
Incursion of multinational corporations and the erosion of the nation-state (broadly defined as globalization)
Education industry driven by virtual learning and cross-border research
Online social networking

6. What is Driving this Connectivity?
Integrative technologies linking satellites and mobile telephony
Demand for real time information by global consumers
Supplied by few dominant global media and content providers
Global entertainment industry providing content over Internet
Target - new generation of consumers born after 1990
Reconfiguration of the global political economy into interlocking large regional blocks
Increased demand for openness and transparency in Western liberal democracies
Driving e-government solutions.

7. Openness in Liberal Democracies
The Millennials – New Digitized Generation
Obama effect on openness via the Internet
Transparency through e-government
Increased demand to control personal consumption:

8. Openness in Liberal Democracies: Increased demand to control personal consumption
Air travel
Courier packages – DHL, Fedex, UPS
Online banking and access to personal funds
Online shopping
Online social networking: professional and otherwise
Online entertainment: music downloads, movies, blogging, video interaction

9. The Current Caribbean Reality in the face of the Digital Revolution
Why is the Caribbean so seemingly slow to adopt and implement new technologies?
What are the inhibitors to creating a culture of innovation?
Do we see the benefits?
Culturally, do we wish to participate or are we happy and satisfied with our position on the periphery within the status quo?
If not, what macro social and economies policies can be put in place today to engender a culture of innovation?

10. A New Ranking of the World’s most innovative countries
Source: A New Ranking of the World’s most innovative countries by Economist Intelligence Unit, 2009.

11. Challenges to the Region
The dominant MNCs in the region are themselves behind the innovation curve.
Conservatism comes at a high cost:
Risk aversion
Slow adoption of new technologies
Breeds a culture of fear and resistance
Inhibits a culture of innovation.
Additionally, at the global level the Caribbean is way behind in the e-readiness index. Take a look at the latest rankings for 2009.

13. Opportunities for the English-speaking Caribbean
English language advantage
Solid education system that can be packaged and sold
Advancing CSME and regional business integration
Global demand for Caribbean cultural content
Greater linkages to tourism product

14. Opportunities for the English-speaking Caribbean
E-government needs to expand more rapidly – Govt acting a hub
Example tax collection
Political parties using the Net
Capitalizing on short distances to increase inter-regional trade
Increase R&D spend

15. Leading Countries: R&D Expenditure

16. Returning to Gonsalves
Next stage – develop measurement tool for global digital connectivity
Number of Internet Service Providers
Computers per household
Internet connectivity per household
Broadband capacity on a country level
Implications for domestic and foreign policies

17. Global Political Economic Influence
Ability to reconfigure global political economy through major seismic shifts
Ability to determine and/or alter international agenda.
Ability to influence global governance through multilateralism (WTO, UN structure, IMF, World Bank, Regional Development Banks, etc).

18. Global Insertion & GPE Influence Matrix
Global Insertion Including Global Digital Connectivity
HIGH 3
HIGH GLOBAL INSERTION
LOW GPE INFLUENCE 4
HIGH GLOBAL INSERTION
HIGH GPE INFLUENCE
MEDIUM 1
LOW GLOBAL INSERTION
LOW GPE INFLUENCE 2
LOW GLOBAL INSERTION
HIGH GPE INFLUENCE
Global Political Economic (GPE)Influence
LOW
MEDIUM
HIGH

19. Conclusion Increasing importance in measuring digital connectivity
Serious implications for national and regional policies
Information
Foreign policy
Trade
Opportunities still exist
Advantages for the English-speaking Caribbean
Language
Stable democracies
Comparatively high level of human development