The CARICOM Secretariat, as part of its work programme in the area of Capital Market Education and Awareness, has released the first in a series of volumes on Capital Markets in the Region. Titled “Towards a Regional Stock Exchange”, the series is meant to provide information on the role of investment in economic growth and development, the benefits of a diversified investment portfolio and the rationale of regional policy makers in encouraging the development of a regional capital market. It is also intended to increase investor awareness of existing opportunities across the Region.
A regional stock exchange/market is regarded as an important element in furthering the integration process of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The idea first emerged in 1989 on the initiative of the Jamaica Government. In 1991 the three existing stock exchanges in the Region – the Barbados Securities Exchange, the Jamaica Stock Exchange and the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange – entered into an arrangement for cross-border trading in equity.
This first volume looks at Capital Markets in the Caribbean. It gives an insight into the operations of the Regional Stock Exchange and investment in general. Using examples, it defines financial markets and seeks to offer the importance of cross-border trading in the regional integration process. It also offers a listing of the three existing stock exchanges in the Region.
Published in booklet format, the publication makes easy reading, and is designed to sensitise the Region’s public towards a single financial space.
Enid Bissember of the Economic Intelligence and Policy Unit at the CARICOM Secretariat, underscoring the importance of a regional capital market, noted that “Caribbean people are realising that they can no longer rely on the domestic economy for maximising their financial goals and are therefore seeking new avenues for wealth creation.”
Ms Bissember observed too that “the booklet represents the Secretariat’s leadership role and service to the Caribbean Community and its people,”adding that this effort is in recognition of the need for “effectively utilising its policy tools to formulate and demystify the financial systems”. Three other volumes of the monograph series are being developed by the Economic Intelligence and Policy Unit of the Secretariat. They will examine Buying and Selling Securities; The Importance of the Regional Stock Exchange and Cross Border Operations respectively.
