party. Clearly, for purposes of efficient decision making, information asymmetry should be avoided. ICTs can help businesses in their efforts to cope with ever-increasing challenges emanating from the impacts of trade liberalization and globalization. They can especially facilitate outsourcing which in turn can facilitate improved operational efficiency and enhance competitiveness. ICTs can also offer particular benefits to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), enabling them to compete more effectively with their larger counterparts. They further assist businesses in gaining access to distant markets, thus offering considerable scope for export development. More importantly, just as foreign companies set up call centres in the region to leverage the Caribbean‟s competitive advantage, Barbadian companies can use the power of the new technologies to draw on skilled human capital within the region and around the world. They can collaborate with each other, using ICT frameworks to boost their capacity so as to be able, inter alia, to compete for contracts and projects at the regional and international levels. It is increasingly apparent that ICTs play a significant role in services and trade, although they also provide the infrastructure all economic sectors need to function efficiently. ICTs may be considered as the value-added in modern economies; they “connect the dots” between people, companies, and sectors. They also fulfil a dis-intermediary function, meaning that they have the ability to get rid of middlemen or third-party companies and individuals that operate between suppliers and buyers, between producers and consumers. In this way, ICTs enable other forms of interaction between service providers and their clients. ICTs facilitate on-demand availability, seamless transactions, deeper relationships and greater personalisation of goods and services. They 10