Foreign Direct Investment; the way forward. - Collis Williams, Eagle
Tax concessions are not the be-all and end-all. More is needed to tickle the fancy of Foreign Direct Investment.
Can we continue to depend solely on Tax Concessions as a means to attract high quality Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to our Caribbean shores? The answer is no.
The emphasis here is ATTRACT. Once we take a hard, deep look at what we have to offer as a people, a demographic and a location, we will see that we are very fortunate. Hostilities are continuing to develop in the East. More and more people are seeking sanctuary in areas like the Caribbean, as our small population numbers make it more challenging for hostile persons to be concealed. Thus, the time has come for the Caribbean to SHIFT.
The working paper entitled 'Tax Concessions and Foreign Direct Investment in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union' was written in 2008 and continues to be as relevant today to most of the Caribbean island states as it was back then. What is abundantly clear from the reported findings is that Governments of the Caribbean cannot continue to “out-incentivize” each other in order to attract Foreign Direct Investment to our shores. While we would all agree that FDI goes a long way towards helping our economies, we cannot continue to give our sovereignty away and compromise the very people we claim to serve.
It is with this in mind that FDI “attraction” to the Caribbean must take centre stage in our collective Governments' strategies for growth. A careful assessment of our workforces, our people, our educational base and the advantage of small numbers, informs that a carefully branded workforce, people and atmosphere will create a demand which will depend less and less on tax concessions and more and more on the security, environment and attributes of our people, which the world will passionately want to experience.
The Caribbean will become in every way an experience delivered, “By our people, for our people and to you people!" We can help. Consult RDL.