Business
East Caribbean states working towards greater economic integration
The new treaty aims to increase functional co-operation in tourism, manufacturing, agriculture and information technology, as well as health and education.
Sir Dwight pointed to the daunting task facing island nations in restructuring their financial sectors after they became independent against a background of international upheaval.
The last time there was relatively stable growth in the global economy was in the 1950s and 60s, he said, noting that oil, currency, banking and financial crises followed the demise of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1971, when the US broke the link between the dollar and gold.
“Our countries have had to chart a development path in which our financial institutions have had to play a significant role,” he said.
“The economic arrangement centered on the export of raw materials and the importation of consumer durables, capital and intermediate goods and even food.
“Foreign commercial banks dominated the financial system and their lending was oriented to facilitating this anti-developmental economic system.”
Different parts of the English-speaking Caribbean dealt with this in different ways, some by leaving the banks alone, some by nationalizing them, and some by forcing local ownership participation on them or establishing state-owned competitors.
