The participants will be senior officials from small states in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and South Pacific region.

The workshop will be held at the University Gozo Centre. Topics for discussion include: trade vulnerabilities and competitiveness constraints of small states; devising consultative and participatory approaches for the development of competitiveness strategies in small states and the institutional set-up for the promotion of competitiveness in small states.

During the workshop there will be a book launch entitled Competitiveness Strategies for Small States edited by Lino Briguglio and Gordon Cordina, containing 20 papers by scholars from different parts of the world.

The workshop is part of a collaborative project between the Commonwealth Secretariat and the University of Malta which involved a series of meetings, including a national conference for the drawing up of a competitiveness strategy for Malta held in May 2003 and the upcoming workshop, and the publication of two books. The first book has already been published and is entitled Maximising Malta’s Competitiveness Potential. It describes the consultative process which was undertaken during the first half of 2003 to derive a coherent over-arching strategy aimed at enhancing Malta’s national competitiveness and puts forward a number of proposals for its implementation.

The second volume, to be launched during the July workshop, is based on the competitiveness experiences of a wide selection of small states and draws on the expertise of authors from small states around the world.

Though focused on competitiveness, the book covers a wide variety of themes, including the need for a sound macroeconomic framework and appropriate institutional set-ups.

Some of the chapters relate to international trade negotiations and make a case for granting special treatment to small states.

Another issue treated in the book relates to the measurement of competitiveness, where the fact that competitiveness is multifaceted, involving various actors and dimensions within the economic and social milieu, is stressed.