CARICOM finance council meets in Belize
This week Belize hosts two high level meetings of the Caribbean community. The first got underway this morning and News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams was on hand for the opening.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
Ministers of the thirteen-member CARICOM Community involved in finance and planning are once again back to the drawing board to discuss Protocol Two: how to forge a single market and economy within the region. The first working session of the fourth meeting of the Council for Finance and Planning opened this morning at the Radisson.
With Belize in the chair, Budget Management Minister, Ralph Fonseca, cited harmonisation of legislation for the financial sector as crucial to the integration and expansion of the region’s capital market.
Ralph Fonseca, Chairman CARICOM Council
“There’s clearly a need for a higher level of efficiency in mobilising and allocating capital with a view to substantially raising the amount of investments into the region. Proposals for modernising and harmony, the banking and insurance sectors, as well as the security industry will consequent be presented for our consideration during these meetings.”
According to outgoing Chairman, Barbados’ International Business Minister Reginald Farley, the Single Market Economy is just one of the issues on the table.
Reginal Farley, Outgoing Chairman, CARICOM Council
“Making provisions and ensuring that we take care of some issues relating to vulnerability to disasters. Therefore the work which we started sometime ago in seeking to have adequate plans in place for disaster mitigation, disaster management and reconstruction has to be given some prominence. We believe that it is perhaps wonderfully coincidental that we are in Belize, which had to face those issues not as theoretical concepts, but as practical realities in their efforts to foster development.”
And according to Acting Financial Secretary Joseph Waight, a single market will mean the removal of tariffs and restrictions along with the free flow of capital, goods and services.
Joseph Waight, Ag. Financial Secretary, Min. of Finance
“Some countries may win, some may lose. But then they will have a change to diversify to move into something else. It’s basically an equalizing. Some countries may lose market share in one area, but may gain elsewhere. The thing is to try subordinate national interests for global interest we’re too small to go it alone. So what we have to do is form a regional grouping to trade with the outside world. it means some fiscal impacts, some trade impacts at the same time.”
Tomorrow environment ministers from CARICOM, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, will meet at the same venue to discuss issues common to the CARICOM region.
Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
Present for both meetings this week is CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington.
