By the Caribbean Journal staff

With the world increasingly moving toward the application of knowledge as a major component of economic activity, Barbados “must endeavour to put policies and strategies in place to encourage innovation,” according to Trade Minister Senator Haynesley Benn.

“Economic advancement, for all intents and purposes, now hinges more and more on a country’s ability to produce goods and services at competitive prices, as well as its ability to formulate and develop new and/or improved production technologies, processes and products,” he said.

Benn was speaking this weekend at the 2012 National Innovation Awards at Barbados’ Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

Knowledge-based economies will continue to be the leaders around the globe, and it “is essential that Barbados embrace this truth,” Benn said, noting that the key to economic prosperity was to increase productivity.

“Productivity growth is the basis for raising real wages for workers, increasing returns to shareholders and increasing per capita income for the country,” he said, calling innovation one of the ways to increase productivity.

Government has a role to play in that process, he said, by supporting innovators, removing obstacles to new initiatives, establishing a responsive research structure and developing a creative population.

Barbados must, therefore, increase its research and development capacity to solve local challenges, he said.

“Innovation must not be restricted to any particular sector, for all sectors can benefit from new ideas,” he said. “The greatest benefits are likely to come from our focus on improving low technology sectors through innovation.”