News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. June 6, 2014: The Caribbean region can become the best investment zone in the 21st century and the ‘Investment Paradise of the World by the year 2034’ if it follows a “VCS” road map, a Caribbean scholar says.
Antigua-born graduate of Harvard, Princeton and Colombia universities, Dr. Isaac Newton, delivering keynote remarks to delegates at Invest Now 2014 on Wednesday, said the region must create the right strategic Vision, foster the right investment Climate and cultivate the right Spirit of investment.
He said the Caribbean must create a “clear, strategic vision that attracts local, foreign and Diaspora investors and inspires spectacular success.”
The strategic vision he said should draw on the rich Caribbean culture while emphasizing flawless regulatory practices and balancing investment returns with protecting the region’s natural habitat.
He said the Vision should be carefully designed within a collaboratively and culturally tailored model that supports each island’s development but which focuses on emphasize flawless regulatory practices, improving the quality of life of the region’s people, and supports each island’s development.
Dr. Newton said this strategic vision should require that business and government leaders ACT in harmony within a specific timeline.
“Leaders should project that by the year 2034, the Caribbean will capture at least 35 percent of the global investment market, 60 percent of the Diaspora investment market, and 75 percent of the local market share,” Dr. Newton said.
“This means that the Caribbean’s infrastructure should expand and improve by 55 percent to support this unrelenting growth,” he added.
The Caribbean also needs the right investment Climate he said, that is a healthy mix between the public interest, which desires high quality infrastructure at low cost and investor interest, which seeks a profitable return on their investment should enhance the investment ethos.
And most of all it needs to do this in a Spirit of wooing.
“It is simply not enough to establish investment authorities,” said Dr. Newton. “We have to ask and answer: What infectious enticements would today’s investors need to invest in the Caribbean? Are specific incentives – such as tax holidays, timely court arbitrations and private dispute resolutions, duty free imports, creditor protection laws as in the case of Lithuania which increases bank lending by 27 % percent the best allurements?
“Or would investors be wooed by the construction of special infrastructure and financial guarantees? We should attract investors who want to passionately contribute to the overall development of the Caribbean, and who want to get positive returns on their investments.”
“With the right vision, the right climate and the right spirit of investment, we stand on the brink of a breath taking path to glowing success, marvelous achievement and incredible hope!,” added Dr. Newton. “Our singularly task is to turn the Caribbean into the Investment Paradise of the World by the year 2034.”
See photos from Invest Caribbean Now 2014 here.
Invest Caribbean Now was founded in 2011 by Felicia J. Persaud, CMO at Hard Beat Communications. Among the top list of delegates in attendance at ICN 2014 were Dr. Ma Lin, Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing Municipal Government; Premier of the island of Nevis; Vance Amory; Minister of Trade, Industry, Investment and Communications of Trinidad & Tobago, Senator Vasant Bharath; Minister of Tourism And International Transport, St. Kitts, Senator Ricky Skerritt; Minister of Tourism, St. Martin, Jeanne Rogers-Vanderpool; Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization and Commissioner of Tourism, USVI Department of Tourism, Beverly Nicholson Doty; Chairman of the CARICOM Consular Corps of NY and Deputy Consul General, Antigua & Barbuda, Omyma David; Consul General of St. Lucia to New York, Julian DuBois; Claire McLeveighn, Vice President, Trade and Investment International Division, at the Empire State Development Corporation and Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia representing the 33rd District of Hoboken, Jersey City, Union City and Weehawken in New Jersey.
Top corporate delegates were also in attendance including from Merrill Lynch, the World Bank Group; Goldman Sachs, OPIC; Sandals Resorts International; DHL Caribbean, HBO Latin America, One Caribbean Television, First Citizens TT, InvesTT, interCaribbean Airways; Bright Capital; Aegis Capital; Medici Group, Adiuvo Partners LLP, The Lugano Group, The Woody Wilson Fine Clothing of Beverly Hills; Global Med Choices, American World Clinic; Aspenall Energies; MPowered, Sir Richard Branson’s, Carbon War Room; The Goodness Compan, China Daily USA; Caribbean Commerce Magazine; NATCOM International, One Caribbean Television, FlyingICU, GeoTechVision, Auto Planet Japan Ltd., Super Green Solutions, Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, Invest Saint Lucia, K&L Gates, Lu Ning Architecture, New Sports Group, The Pont Group, Damoola Inc., the Chinese American Business Development Center, The Sino-American Friendship Association and the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce.
2014 HONOREES
Sandals Resorts Chairman and Founder Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart was on hand to receive his ICN 2014 Leadership Award, which he accepted on behalf f the over 6,000 employees at Sandals.
Javier Figueras, corporate vice president of Affiliate Relations at HBO Latin America, leading a team of ten to the event, accepted the ICN 2014 Alliance Award on behalf of the company which has developed affiliate relations with several Caribbean stations including TiVi S.A., the fast-growing television provider in Haiti.
The One Caribbean Television team, led by Brian Lilly and including Kara Coleman, Joey Stevens and Bob Misculich accepted the ICN 2014 Media Visionary Award while First Citizens Jason Julien and Sana Ragbir received the 2014 ICN Service Excellence Award in Banking on behalf of the company.
interCaribbean Airways CEO Trevor Sadler was on hand to accept the ICN 2014 Visionary Award on behalf of his chairman and company while DHL Caribbean executives, including managing director Reiner Wolfs, received the ICN 2014 Service Excellence Award in Logistics.
The 2014 ICN summit was presented under the theme, “Advancing Wealth.”
Presenters for ICN 2014 included: Hard Beat Communications, The Caribbean Tourism Organization, One Caribbean Television, The Woody Wilson Collection of Beverly Hills, The PR Newswire, the Caribbean Commerce Magazine, Blinglets, The Caribbean Council for Economic Development, the World Tourism Cities Federation, China Daily, InvesTT, the Chinese Business Development Center, the Sino-American Friendship Association, Martinique Promotion Bureau- CMT USA, CaribPR Wire, News Americas Now, the Jamaica Observer, CaribSeek, WINN-FM and GCaribbean Magazine.
