Omar Davies, who used to be Jamaica's finance minister, is not instinctively a Caribbean integrationist. But, as is increasingly becoming apparent with Prime Minister Bruce Golding, experience has taught Dr Davies, even within the limits of his own construct, that there is value in regional collaboration; and beyond the merely peripheral.

The fact is, small size and weak economies are constraints to development of Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries. That is part of a larger point implicit in the former minister's presentation at a regional investors' conference in Port-of-Spain last week, in which he explored the Caribbean's readiness for a financial system capable of competing with the rest of the world.

Dr Davies believes that the region is not ready, but can be. Which brings us to the point of regional collaboration/integration and Dr Davies' insistence on hard-nosed pragmatism.

For the People's National Party, of which Dr Davies is a member, Caribbean integration, short of political union, is part of its philosophy, almost an article of faith. But with himself and his party unencumbered by office, Dr Davies argued in Port-of-Spain that "too much of the discussion on economic integration is dominated by bureaucratic wrangling about objectives with diminishing relevance in a rapidly changing world economy". On the other hand, there has not been enough attention paid to "devising pragmatic solutions to new challenges".

His advice, therefore, was for the region to identify, and undertake, doable, pragmatic actions. There may be serious cause to question Dr Davies' seeming dismissal of a wider philosophical discourse on the Caribbean; he does have a point about the need to do immediate and practical things and the implied critique of Caricom for being long on talk and short on on action.

Uniform regulatory environment

In that regard, we endorse Dr Davies suggestion for a focus on the "doables", so as to get a strong, world-class financial market up and running. Among the things to be done is the establishment of uniform regulatory environment within a specific timetable. Indeed, it is more than four years since regional regulatory agencies began talking about this, with little concrete action. Similarly, the integration of Caribbean stock markets to allow for almost seamless trade in equities has had a long gestation.

We do not believe that there needs be a single super regulatory body for financial companies operating in the region, but harmonised regulatory and reporting requirements would enable/ensure consistent behaviour and oversight.

Doing this ought not to be particularly difficult, if the region adopts best practices from existing regulatory agencies, in the region and elsewhere. There is already the technological platform to allow for the information flows necessary in a sophisticated market, although the technical capacity to deliver such information/analysis in a timely manner is weak, as is the capacity for physical movement across the Caribbean.

Having a streamlined, efficient and sophisticated capital market could be a boon to a region that finds it difficult to mobilise the resources for investment and development even as its capital/asset-rich play in external markets.

Dr Davies will find that one pragmatic action will demand not only another, but a deeper concession to pragmatism, and that with each step there is a need to cede a bit of sovereignty. What is important, though, is that it brings value.

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