Dr. Davies Urges Ex-Im Bank to Place more Focus on the Services Sector

Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Omar Davies, has called on the board and management of the Export-Import (EX-IM) Bank to consider broadening its client base to include persons involved in the services sector, including entertainment.
Dr. Davies, who was addressing the Bank’s 20th anniversary awards ceremony last night (May 31) at the University of the West Indies’ Mona campus, observed that whereas the manufacturing and goods producing markets were the dominant sectors when the Bank was founded in 1986, the services sector was now at the forefront of the economy.
“We therefore need to recognise the fundamental changes, which are taking place in the economy and you should not only be in a position to respond to these changes .but should also be in a position to anticipate what will be the needs and to assist (persons in the sector) to structure their interventions,” the Finance Minister said.
“It cannot be that two-thirds of the economy and a certain percentage, which is growing much more than the goods producing sector, that this receives a smaller percentage of your attention,” he noted further.
Dr. Davies pointed out that the country’s cultural industry possessed the potential to generate export earnings. “What that means therefore and logically, is that given our continued need to earn foreign exchange and with two-thirds of the economy now being the service sector, we will have to start focusing on supporting the more critical elements of the economy,” he stated.
He indicated that the Finance Ministry stood ready to help the Bank to formulate a structured programme aimed at the needs for the services sector. “It is important that they be brought into a formalised system of doing business and your institution has that capability,” he stated.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, under whose watch the EX-IM Bank was founded, explained that the Bank was one of a number of institutions created out of the need to stimulate export earnings and economic development.
He noted that the Bank was instrumental in the country’s achievement of five per cent average growth by 1990 and a revenue increase of some three per cent of gross domestic product.
The ceremony saw 15 companies being presented with client awards by EX-IM Bank, while another 15 financial institutions were presented with approved financial intermediaries awards.