Jamaica still intends to establish International Financial Services Centre - Hylton

The Jamaian Government has asserted that it still intends to establish an International Financial Services (IFS) Centre in Jamaica.

   
Anthony Hylton, Minister of Industry, Investment & Commerce, on Monday projected that the creation of  the Centre could generate US$300 million in earnings annually, and create ten thousand jobs.

   
Hylton, yesterday at the opening plenary of  the 6th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference in Montego Bay, said key pieces of  legislation have been drafted to facilitate the IFS Centre.

   
Promotion of  potential opportunities from the development will be undertaken during the second half  of  the current fiscal year.  

   
The aim is to establish the country as an offshore financial hub, similar to jurisdictions such as Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands.

But even as Mr. Hylton is making these projections, Aubyn Hill, a former banker with significant international experience, is questioning the practicality of establishing an International Financial Services Centre in Jamaica given recent developments overseas.

Citing Jamaica's proximity to the United States, "the most efficient and the most dominant financial centre in the world," Mr. Hill, in an interview with RJR News, questioned "why Jamaica would be a port for offshore investment, and especially as well when the bigger countries - the United States, the EU, elsewhere - are really cracking down on these offshore places, because they are seeing them as tax havens for many of their big companies that don't pay taxes in their home countries."

The initiative to establish an International Financial Services Centre in Jamaica started under the last government of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which was in office from 2007 to 2011.

Mr. Hill is now an economic policy advisor to the JLP.