The Jamaican Government continues to hold closely its plans and ideas for transforming the island into a centre for international financial services.

Indeed, a report on how to move forward, by Eric Crawford, a partner in the accounting firm of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, has not yet been made public. And, neither has the finance ministry, which is spearheading the project, put the broad issues out for debate. It would appear as though Don Wehby, the minister who is leading the initiative, wants to have all the nuts and bolts in place before unveiling the project. Then, he would present Jamaica a fait accompli. Wehby, conceivably, would have overcome the possibility of somebody stealing Jamaica's ideas.

Robust debate

Perchance, that is the thinking of the Government; we believe it is wrong. Ideas are best tested in the context of robust debate, out of which are likely to come the best plans. In any event, the global environment has changed so much in recent months that many old assumptions about financial markets and their key players have been turned on their heads.

In that regard, Mr Wehby and Mr Crawford may be forced into a rethink of their strategies - if that is not already the case. Jamaica is not the only emerging market country that hankered for a piece of the business on providing services to the global financial markets and the firms that operate within them. It is certainly not the only one in the Caribbean Community (Caricom).

Trinidad and Tobago, Caricom's economic powerhouse, has, for instance, been aggressively pursuing a similar project. New regulatory legis-lation for its financial services sector is currently before or will soon be taken to the country's Parliament.

Trinidad and Tobago had a significant advantage in any effort at wooing foreign financial firms to Port-of-Spain as a place to set up some of their operations. Its petroleum-based economy is stable, enjoying, in recent years, growth rates that have been near double digit. In the past fiscal year, the government surplus was 7.6 per cent of gross dometsic product and the country's reserves is now near US$10 billion, enough cover for nearly a year's imports. Indeed, the country's sovereign bonds, unlike Jamaica's, are rated at investment grade.

No need for out-and-out competition

With the global financial meltdown, such perceived stability counts for something, especially if Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago were to be in open competition for the back office and some of the other operational business, brokers, fund managers and other market makers. We, however, do not feel that there is need for out-and-out competition. There is, instead, the possibility of cooperation.

Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, as members of Caricom, are part of its move towards a single market, already enjoying free movement of capital and some mobility of skills. While Port-of-Spain has the underlying economic stability that comes with growth and surplus capital, Jamaica has the more sophisticated capital market and a broader range and availability of skills necessary for the management of a financial-services market. It has good oversight legislation. Both countries have good telecommunications systems.

In the circumstances, it would be relatively easy for Kingston and Port-of-Spain to harmonise regulatory and other legislation and nudge firms to develop cross-border services. The logic is obvious.

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