BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – LESS than one week on the job, newly-installed Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Timothy Antoine has already met with media partners and outlined his vision and strategy for his term in that office.
Antoine met with media operatives in St. Kitts on Monday (Feb. 1) at the ECCB, where he proposed a condensed version of his ambitious vision and strategies for that financial institution and the region.
He said his vision for the region is to achieve or maintain a strong EC dollar, bring strength and resilience to an already stable and improving financial system, promote sustainable public finances, promote a single economic and financial space, reduce unemployment into the single-digit fields and promote a thriving and striving citizenry.
Antoine said chief among his goals is the maintenance of a strong EC dollar and he referenced the ECCB itself. His vision for it includes “delivering comprehensive oversight of the financial system that encourages the development of strong and resilient financial institutions, including indigenous banks, monitoring credible and effective fiscal rules (and) enhancing our effectiveness through higher levels of transparency and accountability”.
And at the head of his list of strategic priorities is financial stability, which he stressed is a catalyst for growth. That list also includes fiscal and debt sustainability, growth, competitiveness and employment and enhancing organisational effectiveness.
He said the media is an integral part of his public relations program and declared that specific programmes would be designed to engage the media and encourage the body to report more on the happenings at the financial institution.
Antoine’s media outreach programme would include periodic media briefings, the launch of an “Inside ECCB” podcast and media workshops in which media practitioners could request on specific issues or topics.
Antoine, who has been given a five-year term (2016-2020), is said to have some large shoes to fill, having been preceded by Sir K. Dwight Venner who served as Governor of the ECCB for more than 20 years.
He previously served as Chairman of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union Technical Core Committee on Insurance; Grenada’s Homegrown Programme Monitoring Committee; Grenada Authority for the Regulation of Financial Institutions; Investment Committee of the Grenada National Insurance Board and the Governance Reform Committee – Board of Directors – of the Caribbean Development Bank; Director of the CARISOM Development Fund’s Board of Directors; and Director of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility.
Antoine said he has already met with the staff of the ECCB and has proposed a new mantra by which he and his team would work. The mantra is STAR – Service, Teamwork, Accountability and Results.
The ECCB Governor said he would get full support and participation from his staff in taking the financial institution and the region to the next level of fiscal sustainability and buoyancy.
