President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Dr. Warren Smith is advocating a private sector-led, regionally coordinated initiative to help the Caribbean optimize its benefits from the international business and financial services (IBFS) sector.
Speaking at Barbados’ International Business Week 2019 Conference earlier this week Dr. Smith pointed to what he said was the growing attractiveness of the Caribbean as an offshore centre, a circumstance which he said had won the region closer international attention. Smith drew attention to a recent OECD report which alluded to the fact that since 2010 developing countries had accounted for a larger intake of foreign direct investments than their more developed counterparts, though he noted that the growing attractiveness of these countries had come at a price insofar as it had afforded them enhanced global visibility and brought them under greater scrutiny.
Accordingly, the CDB President alluded to the marked increase in regulatory requirements, not least the passage of the United States’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) as well as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Common Reporting Standard. Smith notes that the requirement of complying with these various rules “places a bureaucratic burden on governments and institutions” in developing countries.
