CSME Will Bring Increased Competition For Bahamas

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

13 August 2003

John Rolle, deputy manager of the research department at the Central Bank of the Bahamas, has warned firms that there will be losers as well as winners as a result of integration into the CSME (Caribbean Single Market Economy), though predicting that the country will benefit overall from participating in the economic union.

"For a country that decides to sit on the sidelines, you will miss out in terms of the rules that are made and then businesses within trading blocs start to multiply more than for the countries that are outside the trading bloc. Trade tends to take place more between countries that have more convenient and efficient mechanisms for trade," Rolle told a group of small business owners last week, the Nassau Guardian reports.

Mr Rolle warned however, that certain sectors of the economy will become casualties of a free market, and this will inevitably have an impact on the level of unemployment, though the effect of this can be reduced by having the right safety net in place he added. It must also mean an increased focus on competitveness said Rolle.

"We want to improve competitiveness. We want to build capacity in the country to be more competitive, which means we have to put more emphasis on our educational system," commented Mr Rolle.

Recommended