Caricom leaders have expressed a desire to set up a Caricom stock exchange following talks they held with the President of the New York Stock Exchange for most of yesterday.
However, they differed on the outcome of the New York Conference on the Caribbean which they attended at the invitation of the leading state officials of New York over the past two days and which was held under the theme ‘The New York Conference on the Caribbean Community: A 20/20 Vision Continued’ and included trade presentations, roundtable discussions and meetings on issues of trade, investment, education and the diaspora’s role in regional development. The first conference was held in Washington DC last year.
Yesterday the leaders also met with members of the Caribbean diaspora.
Speaking about the outcome of the conference Chairman of Caricom and Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Baldwin Spencer told the regional media that he would not say that there were concrete decisions made. The representatives, he said were very receptive to the ideas and suggestions that were put forward by the Caricom Heads of Government and the New York Stock Exchange representatives.
“The important thing now is to build on the initial engagement and to ensure that we develop mechanisms that could lead towards at least further consideration in a more effective way, of some of the things that came out of that session,” Spencer said.
The New York Stock Exchange officials also met with representatives from all the stock exchanges from across the region including Guyana.
However, President Bharrat Jagdeo, in an interview with WRHM’s Capitol News in Brooklyn, New York said that he is not too optimistic about the outcome.
Jagdeo said he does not have “too high expectations. I think it is more sensitizing the investors, and the bankers as to the opportunities of the region. I think they are more sensitized today. Sometimes when people look at the Caribbean, they tend to be dismissive because of its small volume of international trade. But there are huge opportunities for investment in the region and for money making and this is why we try to get the large bankers together.”
According to the PNCR, Jagdeo was greeted on his arrival at the opening of the conference at the Brooklyn Borough Hall on Thursday, by a group of protestors, which included members of the PNCR and concerned Guyanese, highlighting a number of concerns in Guyana including the impact of the Value Added Tax on the cost of living, human rights violations, state sponsored murders, incarceration of Oliver Hinckson, the suspension of CNS TV 6 licence among other issues. The number of protestors was reported to be small in number.
In an interview with the regional media on the outcome of the conference and asked whether it was useless looking to the USA for help when the country has its own economic problems, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning said that he does not believe it is a waste of time.
He said that on Wednesday, the US Congress passed a bill that had tagged on to it, the extension of the Caribbean Basin Initiative legislation, which was most important for the Caribbean, given the fact that Caricom has not yet been able to negotiate a trade agreement with the United States of America. “So do not believe this meeting is a waste of time by any means,” he said.
Also speaking with the media at the New York Stock exchange on the outcome of the meeting, Prime Minister of Barbados, David Thompson said he does not think that the region should underestimate meetings like these. “They serve as sort of an entree to meet people, and allow us to finance development in our region. When Caribbean leaders across the region gather, they represent a variety of interests, a variety of economic perspectives, and resources. We have to engage others who are going to help us finance major infrastructure and other development in our region. I think this provides a first step.”
Thompson noted that the issue of deportees was raised as crime in the region might be a source of concern to some investors. He said that although the issue did not take up a big part of the meeting, it was discussed and Caricom leaders renewed calls for more assistance from the USA in the crime fight.
Sharing his view Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Hubert Ingraham said that it was a useful exercise and it would be fair to say that all benefited from what transpired. “We look forward to next year, when there will be another meeting in another US city,” he said.
In spite of the Caricom leaders presence in New York to meet New York City’s top public officials and top private sector representatives, Stabroek News learnt that the conference did not attract the attention of the international press, the major US press or the New York area press.
