to meet its mandate. we therefore congratulate this sub - committee on the progress made and we in the region sincerely thank the bank of jamaica for their efforts. there is no doubt that consolidated supervision with the attendant impact on our ability as a region to adhere to the new accord is indeed a challenge. in the meantime our institutions continue to become more complex raising the issues of potential contagion and the effective management of systemic and liquidity risks. the need for specialists in our supervision departments to deal with these and other emerging complexities such as financial modeling, is a matter that we must address as a region. as i conclude my address, i would like to leave you with an update on the developments that are currently taking place in trinidad and tobago and which will certainly have an impact on the region as a whole. the financial sector of trinidad and tobago is considered robust as it has been experiencing an uninterrupted period of positive economic growth over the last decade due primarily to the increased activity in the energy sector. however, there is an element of caution being expressed by both the private and public sectors that this is the time to put in place updated regulatory and preventative measures to ensure that potential risk exposures in the financial system are significantly minimized. it is clear that the government is adopting a proactive approach to ensure that we do not have a repeat of what took place in the 1980 ’ s when we experienced the collapse of several financial institutions in trinidad and tobago. as a result of the foregoing, legislative reform is a critical aspect of a white paper being developed to ensure that trinidad and tobago attains first world status by 2020. as i mentioned previously, the central bank has assumed the role of regulator of the insurance industry. the vision is for a single regulator. in the interim a regulatory council is being established which will provide for cooperation amongst the various regulators. whilst legislative reform is critical to address the complexities of the financial sector, other aspects such as the strengthening of corporate governance, promoting market discipline and transparency are critical. it is with this in mind that the central bank of trinidad and tobago has developed several guidelines which include corporate governance and fit and proper assessment for both banks and insurance companies. finally, i would like to say that globalization is affecting us all and as we live in the same hemispheric region i am sure that our latin american supervisory colleagues present here today are experiencing similar situations as i have expressed today. we therefore need to work together by sharing our

is good for you is bad news for me ; • my understanding is that your agricultural sector is currently recovering from the ravages of recent hurricanes ; but, this crisis should spur you to move beyond recovery, towards not only agricultural self - sufficiency, but towards making grenada one of the regional food - baskets. you have a ready market in trinidad and tobago, where food shortages and in particular, insufficient supplies of fruits and vegetables are contributing to an over 30 per cent increase in food prices ; • the crisis presents an opportunity for you to strengthen your skills bank by luring back skilled grenadians and west indians, who could be the first to suffer from the labour market problems in the us, uk and other places. there are highly qualified caribbean people out there who just want the nudge to come back home and the unemployment and uncertainty in the us and uk may be just enough to tip the balance, to provide that nudge. • and some of these returning nationals may be able to bring not only skills but capital, as well, in the form of direct investment. interest rates are much higher in the caribbean than in the industrialized world, rates of return on capital are higher here than they are currently in the us and it ’ s our job to go out and showcase our advantages to the caribbean diaspora ; to entice them to set up businesses back home. this is the right time and we should not lose the opportunity once again. ladies and gentlemen, in my many years of working with the imf i have been exposed to many economies, both developed and developing, both large and small. i have seen economies waste resources and i have seen economies do miracles with little. i can tell you that by developing country standards, the oecs economies are very well endowed. as a region we have abundant sun, sand and good weather ( most of the time ) ; our most attractive art, music and culture ; proximity to the united states, fairly good educational resources, and fluency in the english language, which has become the language of trade and business. i know also, the frustrations that caribbean governments have faced in their quest for economic transformation. oft - times globalization has not worked to our advantage. i am acquainted with the loss of preferences in europe for our agricultural commodities ; our efforts at light manufacturing, which floundered in the face of technological advances, increases in labour costs and the advent of china as the world ’ s manufacturer ; and when the