PRIME Minister Perry Christie said that creativity and innovation are the determinants of success in the financial services sector.

Mr Christie made the remark during the opening ceremony for the Third Caribbean Conference on The International Financial Services Sector.

The three-day conference is being held at the British Colonial Hilton. It opened on Monday and ends today.

“Creative or innovative places grow and develop. Places that stifle creativity do not,” said Mr Christie.

“Indeed, in the Bahamas – we are of the firm belief that the future of financial services is not just in the efficient and effective provision of services such as ensuring that we have fast turn around times or that we are cost efficient, etc. No, the future of the financial services sector also relies on creativity and innovation.”

He said that his thesis, therefore, is that in order to develop a “‘Great Financial Services Centre” every effort must be taken to ensure that a jurisdiction’s services-based economy works well, while also ensuring that its economy supports creativity and innovation.

“Our discussion, therefore, must include our labour markets because the future of our centres relies on having a sufficient number of high quality financial services professionals with the depth and breadth of skills needed for a modern, innovative financial services industry,” he said.

Prime Minister Christie also pointed out the importance of a well-developed educational system that is accessible to all. In addition, he said that early education must be “bolstered” in order to better prepare children for primary and secondary education.

“Secondly, then, we must also improve at the tertiary and professional levels to ensure that a sufficient number of our citizens have the necessary skills to perform well and to think critically on the job.”

Several factors, he said, determine how attractive a jurisdiction would be to potential offshore businesses. He pointed to factors including: “Luck factors” like the eographic proximity to clients and important markets; policy factors, such as how easy it is to do business in a country and the quality of your infrastructure – an area which I will address later; and most importantly the availability of skilled local talent.

From this perspective, the Prime Minister said that regional governments need to focus on developing a “Strategic Human Development Policy.”

“Countries in this hemisphere (and I am talking about both the Caribbean and Latin America) must address this phenomenon known as the ‘skills gap’ because these gaps directly constrain what we can do, generally, and how we compete for mobile capital,” he said.

He said that to this end, he has directed the Minister of Financial Services to work with all relevant institutions within the Bahamas Government and outside of the Government to ensure that Bahamians are ready for the changing realities in the financial services sector.

In addition, Mr. Christie discussed some of the initiatives currently being taken at the Ministry of Financial Services, and the private sector to ensure that creativity is supported. Some of these initiatives include the creation of the Smart Fund, the Bahamas Executive Entity and other industry driven products.