WESTERN BUREAU - Companies that have successfully used information technology and innovation to increase market share both locally and abroad can vie for the top spots in a state-run competition that will be launched in November. The launch will form part of the observances during science and technology month.

Minister of Commerce, Science and Technology Phillip Paulwell, who announced the competition in Montego Bay on Thursday, is confident that it will encourage greater use of science and technology in the business sector.

"The way that Jamaica is going to be able to advance its competitiveness and its efficiency, whether we are into goods manufacturing or services production, is through the application of science and technology," he said. "But more importantly, due to the preoccupation in this area of innovation, (we have to) get our people to understand how we have to distinguish ourselves from the competitors."
The idea for the competition, he said, came from a course that he had recently completed at Harvard University in the United States, which had given him a better insight into how science and technology could enhance business development.

"We are going to work in collaboration with Harvard to stage this competition which will provide tremendous benefits to those businesses that have shown over the years, and especially the last twelve months, the use of new methods - the use of new application - the new thinking that we see emerging, to acknowledge them," Paulwell said during the launch of the 2004 Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry Business Exposition in the western city.
The top three businesses will receive the Ministry of Commerce Science and Technology Award for Innovation. There will also be a cash incentive for the overall winner, coupled with the Commerce Science and Technology Shield, which will also be presented to the two runners-up.

Companies will be judged on:
. value-added development,
. their ability to commercialise research that has been done through the various institutions such as the universities and the Scientific Research Council,
. the increase in their exports/sales domestically, and
. they must show that the innovation represents new thinking.
The selection of entries will be made by a committee which will be established by the island's Chambers of Commerce. There will also be a role for Harvard.
"Harvard is going to be a major player, we are going to be inviting down one of the major proponents of innovation to be with us as a special guest of the government in November," Paulwell said.

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