Barbados will host some of the most respected figures in the international financial services industry during the Barbados Financial Services Conference beginning March 5. The two-day event is being organized by the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC) under the theme Navigating the New International Financial Environment.
The conference is designed to give the corporate communities of Caribbean and Latin American countries a forum in which to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities facing the region’s financial sectors, said Special Projects Consultant for the BIDC, Henderson Holmes. He was joined by First Vice President of the Barbados International Business Association, Chris Evans, for a visit to New Providence on Monday (January 20) to extend a special invitation to The Bahamas business community. “Even though we do compete in certain areas, because of forces external to the region, we are going to have to act together more and more in the future,” said Evans.
“The obstacles are pretty well known,” Holmes added. “There are initiatives which have posed serious threats to development of the financial services industry and to international business activity in general, but the reality is that amid all of this, the offshore centres are almost indispensable. The question is how to navigate through these turbulent waters and find the opportunities.”
William “Bill” Rhodes, Senior Vice Chairman of Citigroup and Citibank, and a leader ininternational financial diplomacy and external-debt crisis management, heads an impressive slate of international speakers drawn from intercontinental firms like Stikeman Elliott; Bull, Housser & Tupper; Towers Perrin; Holland & Knight; KPMG; Towner Management; Ernst & Young; and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
The workshops and discussion sessions will clinically examine strategies for facilitating business transactions, including providing insight on international insurance, intellectual property, the world economy and financial markets, e-commerce and its impact on international business, and international trusts and banking. The programme has been deliberately structured to deal with issues that are of relevance to the entire region, however Evans asserts that the presentations will be placed in a global context.
