Greater Harmonization Among CARICOM States Will Propel CSME – Finance Minister

Finance and Planning Minister, Dr. Omar Davies has said that greater harmonization among CARICOM member states in respect of their economic policies and financial regulatory systems, should “increase the rate at which we move towards the objective of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME)”.
Dr. Davies was delivering the keynote address at the second annual Caribbean Securities Regulators Conference, held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston, yesterday (November 7).
With Caribbean nations working towards the implementation of the CSME, which is slated to come into effect next year, Dr. Davies pointed out that there were in fact, some challenges to harmonizing the regulatory framework for a single economy within the region.
A specific challenge of note, he said, was the issue of a foreign exchange regime. “There are some countries committed to a fixed exchange system and there are others, Jamaica being one, which has totally liberalized the foreign exchange system,” he pointed out.
He said that while Jamaica’s liberalized foreign exchange system “is not an obstacle towards us attaining many of the objectives of the single economy.I don’t think we should try to solve that one before taking steps to advance our progress in other areas”.
The Minister argued that while steps are being taken to create a more co-ordinated approach to the financial regulatory sector in the Caribbean, “there is important work to be carried out by an organisation such as this.as the extent to which we can harmonise the regulatory framework is the extent to which we reduce the possibility of firms utilizing opportunities in one jurisdiction as opposed to another”.
Participants attending the two-day conference which ends today, include stakeholders in the financial services sector, such as issuers, investors, market intermediaries, local and regional government officials, academics and other interests.
The conference is being held under the theme -‘Securities Market Regulation: Balancing Protection and Development’.
There will be five technical presentations and seven panel discussions, with four of the five presentations falling under the sub-theme of ‘Investor Protection’.