US Ambassador says crime is hot button, but no comment on PM Budget proposals

Ambassador Roy Austin said yesterday he was not going to comment on Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s a Budget proposals on crime because the media distorts what he says.

This, even as he described this country as a “hot button” in a speech to regional business CEOs, managers and bankers at the Caribbean Latin American Action (CLAA) Regional Trade and Foreign Investment Forum at the Trinidad Hilton. It was the only time the Ambassador deviated from his prepared text. “I am not going to comment on the Prime Minister’s proposals.  Between the time what I say and what is printed, you guys take it and turn it into something else,” he said, when reporters asked him to elaborate on his description of TT as a hot button and what he thought about Manning’s Budget crime proposals. In his address, Austin told businessmen that the economic benefits of integration, both locally and regionally, may be used to address not only social concerns like HIV/AIDS but also education and crime, “which has become a hot button.” Those in the audience included First Citizens Bank CEO Larry Howai; Republic Bank chairman and managing director; Ronald Harford; Dr Rolph Balgobin executive director and TCL CEO; CAIC president Rollin Bertrand and Katherine Kumar inspector of banks.  

Noting that small economies are disadvantaged when they compete in the globalised environment, Austin said limited production capacity and restricted access to capital make it difficult to compete against larger countries and economic blocks. “By creating a coalition of bankers, legislators, businesses and private sectors, and Government officials, we can build the consensus needed to bring momentum to the process of integration of financial markets of Caricom,” he said. He added that for integration to be successful, “the private sector across the region must come together to take the iniative in forging the public/private sector partnership required to confront the challenges head-on.” Integration of the region’s capital markets leads to lower prices for all financial services, diversification of portfolio investment, cheaper financing and more efficient allocation of capital, Austin said. In a worskshop session on “Banks and Entrepreneurship,” FCB’s Howai said for local banks it comes down to what kind of scale is needed to deliver services on par with banks operating in the global environment. On the impact of FTAA in 2005, Howai said he had clients coming to him who are prepared to close down their operations in the manufacturing sector because they feel they will not be able to compete. He said these manufacturers said they were prepared to bring in their products from India. “How do we (banks) deal with that?” he said, and wondered whether there was going to be a manufacturing sector when 2005 rolls around. The one-day conference was held in collaboraton with the UWI Institute of Business (IOB), the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC) and the Caribbean Association of Indigenous Banks (CAIB).