RTC Director

IMF releases their findings following a visit to the TCI

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, headed by Hiroko Oura, visited Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), during April 14-27, to conduct a financial stability assessment under the IMF’s Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP).

The mission met with Governor Peter Beckingham, Financial Services Commission (FSC) Managing Director Kevin Higgins, Minister of Finance, Trade, and Investment Charles Washington Misick, Chief Financial Officer Stephen Turnbull, Permanent Secretary, Finance Sonia Thomas-Been, senior officials from the FSC and other agencies, as well as representatives of financial institutions and professional bodies. The preliminary findings of the mission are summarized as follows.

The financial system is been gradually recovering from the 2008 economic crisis. Banks continue to show high levels of Non Performing Loan (NPL) ratios and credit growth remains negative. But high levels of capital buffers should help them withstanding a range of adverse shocks. While the economy is recovering, the FSC should remain vigilant and monitor asset quality and liquidity conditions, and ensure the capital buffers remain. The domestic insurance sector is small and do not appear to pose systemic risks. The offshore insurance sector has little link to the domestic financial system.

However, small depositors and policyholders suffered substantially from the lack of standard safety net tools. The territory does not have lender of last resort (namely, a central bank) or a deposit insurance scheme (DIS). Without government support, small depositors of a systemically important indigenous bank, failed in 2010, lost significant amount. Policyholders of a failed local insurance company (originally a branch of failed Trinidad-and-Tobago-based CL Financial) are expected to lose a considerable sum as well.

At this moment, the Turks and Caicos Islands authorities are not ready to introduce a DIS. A DIS can function properly when its two preconditions are met: a strong supervisory framework and a special resolution regime for banks that are not viable. While progress has been made in the first area, more needs to be done in the second area. More specifically:

•    Enhance regulation and supervision: The FSC has made notable progress since the previous IMF assessment in 2003 and now has better governance, ample financial resources, and supervisory power. Nonetheless, there remains a need for modernizing key legislations urgently, strengthening the Board’s oversight, filling key senior management positions, implementing supervisory guidelines, and more intrusively examining the nature of risks. 

•    Introduce a Special Bank Resolution Regime: Such a regime empowers the FSC to directly take a whole array of actions to deal with non-viable banks before they become insolvent. It includes power to remove and replace senior managers, restructure or wind down the bank, establishing a bridge bank, and transfer the bank’s assets and liabilities.
Nonetheless, there are other tools that can protect small depositors and policyholders, and these should be introduced urgently.

•    “Preference” for depositors and policyholders: The Company Ordinance should be modified to pay out small depositors and insurance policyholders ahead of larger and wealthier creditors when a financial institution is liquidated.

•    Funds earmarked for depositor and policyholder payout: For banks, create a Special Purpose Reserve Fund that holds a portion of total customer deposits in high quality liquid assets, earmarked exclusively for protecting small depositors in case of a failure of the particular bank. For insurers, the new draft domestic Insurance Ordinance will require setting up a statutory segregated trust in TCI, which is dedicated to pay out policyholder claims.

Coordination with various stakeholders is important for the FSC. TCI should create a Financial Stability Committee, including the representatives from the Governor’s office, the Ministry of Finance, and the FSC, to ensure interagency coordination in both regular and crisis periods. Since TCI’s financial system is dominated by foreign-owned institutions, there should be adequate cross-border collaboration with relevant supervisors.

Communication and consultation with the industry need to be formalized to facilitate dialogues said the IMF Agent.

The IMF conducts FSAPs in all its member countries that request it. Assessments in developing and emerging market countries are conducted jointly with the World Bank. FSAPs include two components: a financial stability assessment, which is the responsibility of the Fund; and, in developing and emerging market countries, a financial development assessment, the responsibility of the World Bank.

by RTC Director

Long Bay High School Opens for the 2015-2016 Academic Year

The new academic year will herald in several first for students in the Turks & Caicos Islands at the new Long Bay Hills School.

It will be the first day of preschool for the active and timid preschooler, the first day protective parents will release their babies and preteens from their hovering clutches into the hollow walls of educational institutions to receive quality education and for the Turks & Caicos Islands Government Ministry of Education, it will be the first day a new high school, which will welcome the first set of students, coming some twenty-eight years after the first high school was built on the island of Providenciales.

Like all other government educational institutions, the new school will open its doors at the commencement of the academic year 2015-2016 and will embrace its first batch of students who will intern be the first graduating class of the institution in 2020.
 
The school is located in the Long Bay Hills area, the Long Bay High School as it will be named, will be a fully functional high school separate and apart from the Clement Howell High School. The school will be built in phases, with the first phase accommodating all first formers (Form 1) or year one students who registered for public high school in Providenciales for the new academic year.

 The second phase will give allowance for the enrollment of students entering forms two to five (forms 2-5). This is in keeping with the pivotal role that Education plays in nation building. Students will be afforded holistic development through the provision of educational opportunities and friendly learning environments for them to flourish into well-adjusted adults.

by RTC Director

TCIG’s Lands Division visits the National Land Agency, Jamaica

A delegation from the Attorney Generals Chambers Lands Division returned from a study tour where they observed the modern integrated Land Registry, Cadastre and Estate Management systems of the National Land Agency (NLA), Jamaica on Thursday, 30th April 2015. 

Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI), with its fully registered and digitised cadastre of land, was among the leaders in the region in Land Registration and Mapping.  However, over the past two decades, TCI has not made much progression from its digitised base layers. 

The next step for TCI is the implementation of an integrated web-based system for land administration, which would lead to a more efficient service for conveyancing and better land management.  This would allow for e-conveyancing, electronic document tracking, digital access to property sales data, automated lease management, among other thing.

Members of the TCI team included Commissioner of Lands, Tatum Clerveaux, James Fritz and Gervin Simmons, Director (acting) and Assistant Director (acting) of the Survey & Mapping Department respectively, Naomi Been and Ketietta Simpson, Assistant Registrar and Registry Clerk of the Land Registry respectively, and Shaaban Hoza, Chief Valuation Officer, Valuation Department.

Leading the delegation Mrs. Clerveaux stated; “The NLA study tour is  part of the Lands Division’s initiative to examine a range of IT solutions available to improve land administration and management in the TCI, due to the similarities in the organisational structure, practices and procedures, and advances made in automated land administration.

“The NLA was selected as one of two jurisdictions that the Lands Division will explore the IT options available for improving property registration and their potential impact on existing registration policies and procedures; as well as to identify an appropriate solution for the local context.  Our team will visit Cayman or Bermuda this year to observe their operation.”

Mr. Simmons added; “We were provided with the unique opportunity to engage in an educational work exchange, interact with Jamaican colleagues and understand how the Divisions of the NLA interface through a firsthand look at the Land Registry, Parcel Data Management and Estate Management systems currently in place. “

by RTC Director

BEACHES TURKS AND CAICOS GOES PLATINUM

Beaches Turks and Caicos Resort Villages and Spa has joined an elite number of organizations in the world in achieving the highest level of EarthCheck Certification. 

In attaining Platinum, Beaches Turks and Caicos has been recognized for having consistently demonstrated their commitment to host communities and high standards of environmental care, over a period of ten years or more. 

Rather than opting for the easier path of simply collecting “green badges”, Beaches Turks and Caicos chose a more meaningful approach to sustainable tourism. This involved using EarthCheck science-based software and tools to measure the effectiveness of their environmental and CSR practices.

Each day for the past decade, has seen all Beaches staff adhere to an internationally recognized standard of Best Practice. They have reported their environmental footprint to EarthCheck annually and permitted independent auditors to verify the credibility of their environmental and social claims. 

“The Sandals Group is committed to providing Luxury Included holiday experiences for our guests while minimizing the environmental and social impacts associated with our operations explained Managing Director Donald Dagenais.” These include, freshwater and energy conservation; recycling and reuse programs for solid waste and wastewater treatment systems; eliminating the use of hazardous substances; reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; preservation of land and fragile ecosystems; focused community development and cultural relations; and the employment of qualified local personnel in keeping with our existing  human resource policies. The environmental focus within our hotels also includes programs to minimize noise pollution and hazardous emissions where these are identified within our operations” Mr. Dagenais concluded.

A number of key indicators such as energy and water consumption, total waste production, and community commitment were measured and benchmarked against their peers. This provided a competitive picture of efficiencies and performance and identified where room for improvement remained. 

“There are no short cuts and no ways to buy your way in to the top spot,” explained EarthCheck CEO Stewart Moore. “Rather, this took everyone at Beaches Turks and Caicos a great deal of hard work and commitment over many, many years to achieve.”

“They’re well ahead of most governments and industry players globally as a result of their efforts and serve as a leader in the field of sustainable practices. Their operations serve as an excellent example for how to gain buy-in from key stakeholders, achieve an excellent ROI, and increase asset effectiveness over time,” Moore concluded.

For economies reliant on travel and tourism, EarthCheck’s benchmarking data provides the only historical record of the global environmental impacts of the industry over the past 12 years. More importantly, it rates the effectiveness of industry efforts to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) and conserve natural resources at a project-by-project level.

For travellers the world over, it’s good to know there’s a credible body keeping track of sustainability claims. The EarthCheck logo represents travel and tourism’s efforts to come together and take meaningful steps to address the serious challenges faced by the planet.

by RTC Director

Cabinet of the TCI holds their 13th Meeting

His Excellency the Governor, Peter Beckingham, chaired the 13th meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday 6th May 2015 at the Hilly Ewing Building on Providenciales. 

All Ministers were present except; Hon. Minister of Border Control and Labour;

At this meeting Cabinet:

•         Noted a number of waivers to the Procurement Ordinance made in accordance with Section 21(1) and Section 21(12) of the said Ordinance. These include purchase of vehicles for Vector Control and additional chemicals to assist in stopping the spread of Dengue and Chikungunya and PPE and medical supplies to assist in preventing the threat of Ebola;

•         Noted a report from the Premier confirming that a TCI Canada Friendship Working Group has been established. The purpose of the Working Group is to work in partnership with the Canadian Government to develop inter-governmental strategic policies to serve the mutual interests of both Countries. A delegation from TCI headed by Hon. Don-Hue Gardiner, Minister of Border Control and Labour will travel to Ottawa on 26th May 2015 to advance discussions in areas such as, Finance and Taxation, Law Enforcement, Parliamentary Engagement, Public Private Partnerships (PPP), Trade and Commerce and Education;

•         Advised HE. the Governor to make an order under the Telecommunications Tax Ordinance 2009 to vary the rate on such taxes as are associated with voice services over fixed lines from twelve per centum zero per centum;

•         Advised HE. the Governor to approve amendments to the Business Licensing (Amendment) Regulations 2015 and Business Licensing Order, Section 29. The amendments remove the categories of Financial Brokerage and Financial Services on the basis that these categories are currently regulated by the Financial Services Commission;

•.        Advised HE. the Governor to approve an application by Caribbean Cruisin’ Ltd granting permission for them to operate in a Restricted Business Category in accordance with the Business Licensing (Amendment) Regulations 2014. Caribbean Cruisin’ Ltd is a company that provides Ferry services on the island of Providenciales;

•         Expressed concern about the level of non-compliance within the reserved and restricted business license categories and requested that the Revenue Commissioner establish a Task Force to develop a strategy to increase compliance with Business Licensing requirements. The strategy to include regular reporting to Cabinet;

•         Advised HE. the Governor to approve the re-appointment of the following members to the Physical Planning Board for the period 1st May 2015 to 31st March 2016; Burkley Malcolm, Chairman; Rico Smith, Vice Chairman; Marvin Simmons, Member; Russell Garland, Member; Director of Planning; Director, Department of Environment and Marine Affairs and Director, Disaster Management and Emergencies. The appointments are made in accordance with Section 4 (2) of the Physical Planning Ordinance 2009; 

•         Advised HE. the Governor to approve the appointment of the following members to the Water and Sewage Board for the period 1st April 2015 to 31st March 2016; Permanent Secretary, Infrastructure, Housing and Planning, Chairman;   Chief Environmental Health Officer, Ex-Officio Member; Chief Engineer/ Director PWD, Ex-Officio Member; Director of Planning, Ex-Officio Member; Director of Environment and Coastal Resources, Ex-Officio Member; Chief Economist, Ex-Officio Member; Energy and Utilities Commissioner, Ex-Officio Member; Alan Dickenson, Member; Emerson Hall, Member. The appointments are made in accordance with Section (3-8) of the Water and Sewerage Ordinance;  

•         Advised HE. the Governor to approve the appointment of the following members to the Tourist Board for the period 1st May 2015 to 30th April 2016; Don Gardiner, Chairman; Crystal Greene, Deputy Chairman; Wayne Garland, Member; Brenda Lightbourne, Member; Lloyd Stubbs, Member; Jayne Hutchinson, Member; Lasheko Seymour, Member; Shirmay Pratt, Member; Bianca Harvey Garland, Member; TCHTA Representative;

by RTC Director