Writing in The Sunday Gleaner, Mr Don Wehby, minister without portfolio in the finance ministry, returned to a subject that is clearly dear to him and for which he has responsibility for implementation: establishing Jamaica as a centre for international financial services (IFS).
What was curious about Mr Wehby's piece, however, was that he approached the subject as if oblivious to recent global events, which, if unchecked, could end Jamaica's prospects to be an IFS jurisdiction before it starts. For that matter, the threat expands beyond Jamaica to all Caribbean offshore banking centres, including some very well-off jurisdictions.
"In time, the global economy will recover and investors will return," Wehby wrote. "Proceeding with development now, therefore, will ensure that Jamaica is positioned to take full advantage of the inevitable upswing in the global economy."
Appropriate regulation environment
Mr Wehby, it seems, is content that Jamaica has an appropriate regulation environment and skilled people to operate an effective international financial centre. In time, it needs only to decide on areas of competence between itself and its Caribbean partners for them to share the market.
Seemingly, the minister missed the speeches in Washington last week by the British premier, Gordon Brown - and the underlying threats thereof - about which we warned in these columns.
Mr Brown has previously placed on the global agenda the need for reform of the Bretton Woods arrangements, or what Prime Minister Bruce Golding, during his speech to the United Nations, called the global financial architecture. When the Bretton Woods institutions were conceptualised more than six decades ago, few in the prevailing centres of power perceived of a shift in global power centres as is now emerging.
Mr Brown, however, is promoting more than broad institutional reform, but a regulatory environment to end what is seen as banking excesses of the kind that were presumed to trigger a global economic crisis. In that vein, he wants to target so-called tax havens and offshore banking centres.
Countries might be blacklisted
With the burgeoining scandal surrounding Sir Allen Stanford - whose Stanford International Bank was based in Antigua - providing a frame of reference, it is almost a sure bet that financial services jurisdictions in the Caribbean - present and future - are in Gordon Brown's scope. It harks back to memories of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the 1990s and early 2000s when Caribbean countries were placed on OECD blacklists.
Mr Brown plans to push his agenda at a G20 summit he hosts in London next month. He will likely have the support of United States President Barack Obama, against whose country Antigua and Barbuda had to win three times at the World Trade Organisation in an Internet gambling proceeding before the victory was recognised.
Our fundamental point is that Jamaica and its Caribbean partners must articulate a clear position to prevent their interests from being undermined at the G20 summit. At the intersessional summit of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders in Belize this week, Prime Minister Golding must ensure that this issue, in the context of Gordon Brown's initiative, is placed on the meeting's agenda, alongside the matter of the region's adjustment to reduced capital flows as a result of the global financial crisis.
CARICOM must know it is not alone. Indeed, the community might find it useful to make common cause with Switzerland and Benelux jurisdictions that are similarly concerned about Mr Brown's plan.
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