Anguilla’s Minister of Finance, Victor Banks, speaking on behalf of Chief Minister, Osbourne Fleming, said that the island, like other OECS member territories, had concerns with ways and means of dealing with issues regarding the movement of persons throughout the sub-region.

Mr. Marcel Fahie and Hon. Victor Banks

Mr. Banks was speaking during a Regional Interactive Discussion with Heads of Government, and the Eastern Caribbean Monetary Council and OECS Economic Union Task Force, on July 23. He was at the time sitting in at the videoconference with Anguilla’s member of that task force at the local ECCB Office.

“I would like to point out that Anguilla is…not a full member of the OECS. It is an Associate Member and as a consequence that has implications for our involvement in the Economic Union,” Mr. Banks stated. “We recognise the fact that a level of regional integration is inevitable, even beyond the OECS, to include the French and Dutch territories and this is something that we need to look forward to in the future; and that this would require education, selflessness, commitment and courage.”

Government and Private Sector representatives

Mr. Banks went on: “The functional arrangements [for Economic Union], which will have to take place, must take into account the peculiar circumstances of the small territories. We need to develop an approach to deal with some of these. You spoke, Mr. Chairman [Prime Minister of St. Vincent, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves], of the prevalence of a number of Vincentians whom we welcome on Anguilla and persons from other territories.

“We recognise that as a small community we will require to have in place certain ways and means of dealing with issues regarding the movement of persons and workers throughout these territories. Though it is not highlighted in the number of discussions in the various member states, they all have concerns [about the individual implications] for the eventual development of economic union.”

The stage for the interactive discussion was set by the Governor of the Central Bank, Sir K. Dwight Venner, who gave an overview of the current global economic and financial situation and impact on the OECS sub-region and set out the case for economic union.

“Tonight we propose to start a dialog among the people of the OECS by addressing two issues that may seem to be separate but in fact are very closely related,” Governor Venner told his listeners. “Firstly, an OECS Economic Union which would provide the platform and umbrella for confronting the crisis; and secondly, the 8-point Stabilisation Work Programme which addresses, in very specific terms, a strategic approach to how we will respond to the challenges we now face.”

Sir Dwight continued: “The purposes of this meeting are therefore three-fold – (1) to give information on the nature and impact of the crisis; (2) to outline what the Governments are doing both singularly and collectively to address the crisis; and (3) to hear from as wide an audience as possible so that all the views can be taken into consideration as we chart the course for our future survival and progress.”

He described the nature of the economic crisis as “unprecedented and the equivalent in climatic terms (since this is the hurricane season), to a category 4 or 5 storm in its intensity and longevity.”

The 8-point Stabilisation Work Programme to which the Central Bank Governor referred, has been summarised as follows: Suitably adapted Financial Programmes for each country; Fiscal Reform Programmes; Debt Management Programmes; Public Sector Investment Programmes; Social Safety Net Programmes; Financial Safety Net Programmes; Amalgamation of the Indigenous Commercial Banks; and Rationalisation, Development and Regulation of the Insurance Sector.

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