to ensure its financial soundness. the bill seeks to introduce prudential requirements aimed at strengthening the balance sheet and managing risk exposures faced by credit unions. at the heart of the draft credit union bill is a regime of prudential criteria covering capital, liquidity, asset quality and earnings, borrowing, credit exposure and non - financial activities. bis central bankers ’ speeches i would like to draw your attention to the minimum capital requirement, which is one of the concessions made by the central bank. as you can well appreciate, adequate capital is essential to finance all non - income generating assets of your credit union. capital is also used to absorb losses from loan delinquency or operating deficits. the proposed legislation requires a credit union to have a minimum capital of 8 percent of total assets, reduced from 10 percent in the original proposal. in addition, a credit union with capital below the minimum ( at the time the legislation is passed ) must submit a plan to the central bank to meet the capital requirement in three years, if it wants to make dividend payments. i would also like to draw your attention to the liquid funds ratio, which is another important prudential requirement that must be maintained in order to enable a credit union to meet the day - to - day demands by members for withdrawal of their funds and to ensure that the credit union remains liquid. a lack of liquidity can negatively affect a credit union given that the first time someone is unable to access their shares or deposits this sends negative signals and may lead to a run on the credit union. liquidity is therefore critical to the confidence members have in a credit union and its continued viability. i hope you will forgive me if i sound a bit technical but i believe it is important to cover some of these points as i seek to convince you that while for some the devil is the details, for you, it will be the angel in the details. establishment of protection fund for deposits and shares held in a credit union. ladies and gentlemen, i now turn to the establishment of a protection fund for credit unions. a key institutional support to the new regulatory framework is the establishment of a mandatory deposit insurance system to protect credit union members and, by extension, to enhance stability of the financial sector. the protection fund would be managed by the deposit insurance corporation. not only would the protection fund cover deposits but it would include withdrawable shares, that is, shares not held as permanent shares which represent most of the sector ’ s savings

spending. not only do countries like singapore, malaysia and the united arab emirates get a steady and strong surge of india tourists, but also those like south africa and australia which are up - and - coming popular destinations for the well - to - do indian. for trinidad and tobago capturing even a small share of this indian travel market can be a boon to our tourism industry. indian visitors would have a sense of familiarity with some aspects of the culture and food, but would also be able to enjoy the cosmopolitan mix that is trinidad and tobago. one strategy to employ in seeking to attract these niche markets is to emphasize sports tourism, honeymoon packages and festival tourism. conclusion in closing, ladies and gentlemen, my message is simple. international trade offers many bridges to be built between trinidad and tobago and india. trinidad and tobago is seeking out new markets for survival. indian entrepreneurs are going global and looking for new investment prospects in the caribbean. our policymakers and business community should forcefully seize these opportunities, building upon existing relationships. in my respectful view, trinidad and tobago should set a goal to run a us $ 100 million trade surplus with india over the next 2 – 3 years and the surplus should reflect a wide range of non - energy exports. let me end by reminding you of a quote attributed to mahatma ghandi and which is highly relevant to my message, “ the difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world ’ s problems. ” i thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches