The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie said yesterday that the Government was not prepared to “sit idly by” and ignore the perceived ‘skills gaps’ in the Bahamas’ labour force.

Delivering the keynote address at the third Caribbean Conference on the International Financial Services Sector, Mr Christie said he had directed Financial Services Minister, Ryan Pinder, to work with all institutions within and outside the Government “to ensure that Bahamians are ready for the changing realities in the financial services sector”.

“The Ministry of Financial Services, in concert with various public and private sector institutions, has been mandated to devise policy on the issue of ensuring that deep and wide skills exist in the Bahamas’ financial sector labour market,” Mr Christie said.

“One of the Ministry’s programmes is the formation, within the Bahamas, of a Centre of Excellence for Financial Services Training and Research. I have directed Minister Pinder to make achieving this distinction a priority for his Ministry.”

Highlighting the need for public policy designed to support creativity with the financial services industry, Mr Christie said: “I hold the considered view that hand in hand with Government policy focused on ensuring the adequacy and sufficiency of trained people for our financial services sectors, policy must also focus on ensuring that the sector continues to innovate and create.

“We must ensure that we continue to not only provide service, but also generate new ideas in financial services. As policymakers we do this in a number of ways. The Bahamas has taken the approach that the Ministry of Financial Services works closely with the private sector to ensure that creativity is supported. Evidence of this is the creation of the Smart Fund, the Bahamas Executive Entity and other industry driven products.

“We take the approach that the private sector must be provided with a space within government to have their ideas heard. We then work with the regulators to see how the ideas can be turned into tangible, appropriately regulated products, which we can stake our reputation on and offer to the world.”

Mr Christie said there is a need for increased public diplomacy and dialogue on what is being done in the financial services sector.

“The Bahamas Government, led by the Ministry of Financial Services, has undertaken to unashamedly and forcefully champion its financial services industry,” said Mr Christie.

“I have instructed Minister Pinder to articulate systematically, through all channels available to the Government of the Bahamas, exactly what the Bahamas and its financial services industry is about.

“We are seeking to ensure that international organisations continue to acknowledge that the Bahamas is a well-regulated jurisdiction and one which is known for its compliance with international best practices.”

Mr Christie told the conference that the United Nations needed to be challenged to take the lead in developing and refining multilateral mechanisms for the governance of the offshore financial services sector, mechanisms which Mr Christie noted, “will meet the legitimate demands of the developed world for the protection of their fiscal systems and their need for greater security, while at the same time allowing offshore financial service economies to continue to grow in an orderly and properly regulated way”.

Mr Christie charged that the destruction of such offshore financial services economies will “destabilise” the countries that depend upon them for their livelihood.

“To destroy this sector in the Caribbean would effectively cause tens of thousands of newly-empowered middle class citizens to slip back into poverty or to migrate to the developed world,” he added.

“The middle class of which I speak constitutes the anchor of social stability for the countries in our region. Take that away and social destabilisation emerges as a risk of the most ominous kind. And should that risk materialise, the developed world may well end up finding that it has only solved one problem by creating an infinitely bigger one for itself.”