Ewart S Williams: Challenges facing the Caribbean Centre for Monetary Studies
Opening remarks by Mr Ewart S Williams, Governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, at
the Thirty-Sixth Annual Monetary Studies Conference, jointly hosted by the Central Bank of Trinidad
and Tobago and the Caribbean Centre for Monetary Studies, St Augustine, 1-4 November 2004.
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On behalf of the Management and staff of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, I wish to extend a
warm welcome to all the participants (especially our guests from the Caribbean and further afield), to
the Thirty-sixth Annual Monetary Studies Conference. The Central Bank is especially pleased to be
collaborating with the Caribbean Centre for Monetary Studies to jointly host this Conference, in this
our 40th Anniversary year.
I should note that this Conference has existed for almost as long as the Central Bank and has become
an important fixture in the conference agenda in the Caribbean.
It, in fact started as, the in 1968, under the leadership of
Regional Programme of Monetary Studies,
Sir Alister McIntyre, (who was then, Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research on the
St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies).
As Dr. Jackson indicated, the first Conference was really intended to focus on the implications of the
new sterling agreements following the devaluation of the pound sterling to which most of our
currencies were pegged. The agenda also included a few other topics:
(i) financial accounting in the Caribbean;
(ii) the operation of insurance companies;
(iii) the development of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Area; and
(iv) the design of an ideal accounting framework for the plantation economy.
It's interesting, but many of these continue to be burning issues today.
For many years this conference continued to be staged, in a process of close collaboration between
the regional Central Banks, University of the West Indies and the University of Guyana, but essentially
administered by the University. And here we need to pay tribute to those "essentially unpaid
co-ordinators" who did yeoman work in keeping the programme alive: Professor Compton Bourne,
Maurice Odle, Adlith Browne and Ramesh Ramsaran.
In May 1995, UWI and the Regional Central Banks signed a formal agreement to establish the
Caribbean Centre for Monetary Studies (the CCMS). The core mission of the Centre is to provide
CARICOM Central Banks with timely economic intelligence as well as monetary and financial policy
advice by:
(i) conducting relevant research;
(ii) developing a regional repository of monetary, financial and economic information;
(iii) disseminating its research findings through Seminars, Conferences and Workshops
including, of course, this Annual Monetary Studies Conference.
It is widely recognized that the Monetary Studies Programme and the CCMS have served the region
well. Perhaps one of the most enduring contributions of the programme has been the provision of a
training ground for many of the regions' noted economists. In fact, several of our prominent regional as
well as national policy makers have "cut their teeth", in the programme.
Over the years, the CCMS, for its part, has developed an impressive range of publications covering
both theoretical and policy issues.
The CARICOM Economic Performance and Convergence Report one of its main outputs, provides
important comparative information about regional economic performance, and has proved to be quite
useful in the deliberations of the Committee of Central Bank Governors.
The Centre also has established a network of research associates, drawn from the regional and
international community. The relationships cultivated by this network have allowed for the provision of
joint research with relevance for the Caribbean region.
CCMS broke new ground a few years ago with its Annual Senior Level Policy Seminar which provide
an important forum for the discussion of practical issues of importance to the business community.
These seminars have been a tremendous success.
Globalisation and the rapid evolution of the regional financial environment have created new
challenges for Caribbean Central Banks in their quest to maintain monetary and financial stability. It is
my view that the CCMS has a critical role to play in helping us address these challenges.
And I think that the CCMS could provide this critical support in a number of ways.
Firstly, I think that CCMS could contribute more to economic and financial intelligence at the
regional level through the expansion of regional databases that provide up-to-date information on
financial sector performance. Secondly, I think that the CCMS must get involved in joint research
with the regional central banks on the urgent issues that confront us - issues such as the conduct of
monetary and financial policy under different exchange rate regimes: as exchange rate management:
issues of monetary and financial sector policy co-ordination in the context of the CSME.
Of course, I am fully aware of the kinds of challenges that the CCMS itself faces, not least of which is
the financial resource constraint. The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago is a strong supporter of the
CCMS and I feel that all the regional central banks should be prepared to finance the Center at a level
that facilitates the recruitment and maintenance of high-quality staff.
UWI has been a strong supporter of the CCMS but the University may also have to do more if we are
to maintain a high quality center for monetary research.
And finally, the time may have come when we need to look to the private financial community - the
banks, the insurance companies and so on - to contribute to the financing of the CCMS, if even for
paid research.
Let's face it, we all stand to benefit from the work that could emanate from a well-staffed,
wellresourced and high quality regional center for monetary and financial studies.
With these few words, Mr. Chairman, I would like to wish all the participants a most stimulating and
successful conference.