The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie is expected to chair CARICOM in January, Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson said yesterday.

Mrs Maynard-Gibson foreshadowed the appointment as she outlined the importance of regional cooperation to ensure widespread compliance with international financial regulatory standards.

“We’re looking at the whole idea of a regional pool of resources,” she said.

“We are a country with 360,000 people, and we are being evaluated according to the same standard as the United States of America, a country of tens of millions of people and significantly different resources.

“If the region collaborates and pools its resources, not just financial resources and technical resources, but human capital as well now we’re talking about a completely different kind of ball game and so we’re talking about all countries helping each other in building their financial system so that the region can be seen to be a strong region in this arena.”

Mrs Maynard-Gibson, chair of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, spoke on the sidelines of a training workshop facilitated by the World Bank to launch the first phase of the country’s National Money Laundering Risk Assessment at the Melia resort.

During her address to the working groups, she noted that CFATF’s goal is to have each country achieve 75 per cent compliance with the World Bank’s regulations.

This will mark the second time the prime minister has chaired the CARICOM Heads of Government conference and the Community Council of Ministers meeting.

Former Prime Ministers Sir Lynden Pindling and Hubert Ingraham also served in the post, which is rotated between the 15 member states every six months.