PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – In pursuit of a seamless economic space there was need for swift action, towards “the regulation of the financial sector, fiscal strategies, marketing of the Caribbean brand and inward investment policies.”
This was the view expressed by the Honourable Karen Nunez-Tesheira, Minister of Finance, Trinidad and Tobago as she spoke at the Opening Ceremony of the Fourteenth Meeting of the Caribbean Community Council of Finance and Planning (COFAP) on Monday, March 1 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
The Minister, who was chairperson of the one-day meeting, noted that developments in the global economy necessitated that the Region pursued that agenda aggressively, to secure a more robust financial and economic regional infrastructure that would reduce its vulnerability to the “ebb and flow of the developed economies.”
She pointed out that growth in the Caribbean was estimated to have declined by about 1.4 percent in 2009. While the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago had projected that growth in Latin America and the Caribbean would have increased from -2.5 percent in 2009 to 2.9 percent in 2010, it had also indicated that the short-term prognosis for the Caribbean remained challenging.
Against this backdrop, she said that “concrete decisions” were necessary to buttress regional development and tangible progress of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) was essential to fortify the regional financial architecture for greater financial stability and most importantly, to “enhance the quality of life for all citizens in a most challenging time.”
