News Releases

UWI CCMF hosts Caribbean Business Executive seminar

For Release Upon Receipt - April 12, 2010

St. Augustine


Professor Jan Kregel, Senior Scholar at Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, will deliver feature remarks at the opening ceremony of an upcoming Caribbean Business Executive seminar, organised by The University of the West Indies (UWI) Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance (CCMF). The CCMF is an economic and financial policy and research institution organised and financed by Caribbean Central Banks and The University of the West Indies, with additional support by a number of regional financial institutions.

Themed “The future of the financial services industry after the crisis”, the seminar will take place at Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain, Trinidad on April 30th, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The formal opening will be chaired by Dr. Delisle Worrell, Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados and CCMF Executive Committee Chairman. The feature address will be delivered by Hon. Karen Nunez Tesheira, Trinidad and Tobago Minister of Finance. Professor Clement Sankat, UWI Pro Vice Chancellor and St Augustine Campus Principal, and Mr. Ewart Williams, Governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, will also deliver remarks.

Professor Kregel’s presentation is themed “Why the bailiouts aren't working and why a new financial system is needed”. Professor Kregel is a senior scholar at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College and Director of the Monetary Policy and Financial Structure Program. He currently holds the positions of Distinguished Research Professor at the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability of the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Professor of Development Finance at the Tallinn University of Technology.

Mr Paulo Nogueira Batista, Jr, a well-known Brazilian economist, is also carded to speak on “The Reform of The International Financial Architecture” in the first session of the seminar. Since April 2007, Mr Batista has been the Executive Director for South American and Caribbean Countries, representing Brazil and a group of eight countries in the region at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Also expected to participate are: Michael Mansoor, First Caribbean International Bank (Barbados); Clarence Tong, Mizuho Corporate Bank Limited; Suresh Sookhoo, RBTT; Carol Ann Birchwood-James, Tobago Hotel Association; Yesu Persaud, Demerara Distillers Group of Companies (Guyana); and Dodridge Miller, Sagicor Financial Corporation (Barbados).

This international conference aims to identify new strategies for growth in financial services. It is a forum for the exchange of ideas on critical business, banking and financial issues facing emerging economies in the context of a global financial and economic meltdown of unprecedented proportions. It will serve to bring together, from the Caribbean and other emerging economies, leaders of the business communities, governmental policy makers and international scholars and researchers.

Every year the CCMF organises a seminar for top Caribbean executives on a topic of current interest, with presentations by international experts and Caribbean business leaders.  Last year’s seminar, held at the Seabed Conference Centre, Kingston, Jamaica on September 4th, 2009, aimed to help senior executives of the Caribbean’s business and financial companies to cope with global financial and economic turmoil. Previous seminars dealt with risk management and financial stability. 

For more information, please contact the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance at (868) 645-1174 or ccmf@sta.uwi.edu.

For the latest UWI News, click http://sta.uwi.edu/news.

About Jan Kregel

In 2009, Professor Kregel served as Rapporteur of the President of the United Nations General Assembly’s Commission on Reform of the International Financial System. He is the former chief of the Policy Analysis and Development Branch of the United Nations Financing for Development Office and deputy secretary of the U.N. Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters. Before joining the U.N., Kregel was Professor of Economics at the Università degli Studi di Bologna, as well as Professor of International Economics at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, where he also served as Associate Director of its Bologna Center from 1987 to 1990. Professor Kregel is a senior scholar at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College and Director of the Monetary Policy and Financial Structure Program. He currently holds the positions of Distinguished Research Professor at the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability of the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Professor of Development Finance at the Tallinn University of Technology.

About Paulo Nogueira Batista

Mr Paulo Nogueira Batista has a BA in Economics from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, and a Master degree in Economic History from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Since April 2007, Mr Nogueira Batista has been the Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prior to joining the IMF, Mr Nogueira Batista held the following positions: Under Secretary for Economics Affairs, Ministry of Planning; Advisor to the Minister of Finance on External Debt, Ministry of Finance; Head of the Center for Monetary and International Economics Studies, Getulio Vargas Foundation. He was also a Professor and Researcher of the Getulio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo. Mr Nogueira Batista has participated in numerous conferences and delivered lectures in many different Brazilian cities and abroad. He is the author of four books and a vast list of economic papers and publications. He is also a frequent contributor to two major Brazilian newspapers.

About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

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