ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Opposition Leader Gaston Browne has continued defending his proposal that offshore companies be obliged to buy a minimum quantity of government debt.
Since Brown made the suggestion in parliament last week, he has been heavily criticised.
A main objection is that forcing such investors to buy government debt would make the country less attractive.
Brown says from what he has gathered from discussions with some within the industry the criticism is unfounded.
LISTEN:
Browne also had an answer for those who would argue that what he is suggesting isn’t even possible as it’s illegal.
He says his government would change any laws needed to accommodate the programme.
The opposition leader also defended the figures he used to judge the size of the offshore banking sector.
LISTEN:
Opposition Leader Gaston Browne.
It’s clear that Mr. Browne and the Labour party have not learnt from their past mistakes. They tried taxing the offshore banks previously and it was a disaster. Certainty and consistency are two key factors that investors look for, and when a government changes the rule in the middle of the game, investors (local and foreign) become uneasy. If this is what we can expect of thge “New Labour Party” then I say, heaven help us all.
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Has anyone in authority considered revising the archaic policies which cause all banks in Antigua to actively discourage the public from holding accounts in foreign currencies. Such accounts, if you can get one, pay zero interest and have quite unattractive terms for the depositor. This is not so in St. Maarten, for instance, where a U.S. dollar account will pay you a 3% interest rate.
How much money would flow into Antiguan banks if only they offered foreign currency accounts on reasonably fair terms?
Further, the Antigua government has yet to make their bond issues truly attractive to ordinary depositors. One way would be to facilitate automatic rollovers of Treasury bonds. Just doing that would go a long way to alleviating the treasury cash crunch. Come on people, wakey wakey!
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