New Appointments announced by BVI FSC

On December 19, three new appointments were announced by the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission to the positions of Deputy Director, Enforcement, Deputy Director, Legal, and Senior Policy, Research & Statistics Officer.
Mr. Gary Wilson was appointed as Deputy Director, Enforcement, and will hold responsibility for investigating breaches of BVI regulatory laws and overseeing the implementation of enforcement action by licensees. Before this appointment, Mr. Wilson was the head of the Financial Investigation and Intelligence Unit in Bermuda, and served in this position for 20 years. By words of the Managing Director of FSC Robert Mathavious, now “he will play a central role in delivering the Commission's objective of promoting high standards of conduct among licensees and demonstrating the benefits of compliant behaviour.”

Ms. Ramoutar, appointed to the post of Deputy Director, is responsible for providing legal advice to the FSC on the BVI's regulatory and registry laws, and for territory's representation in civil and enforcement proceedings. Prior to joining the FSC, she has served as the Director, Legal Advisory & Enforcement Division of the Trinidad and Tobago Securities Commission, and as a Compliance Consultant with the Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto.

Ms. McCall was appointed to the post of Senior Policy, Research & Statistics Officer, and will be responsible for providing policy-oriented research and analysis on issues relating to financial institutions, and the framework of the local financial services sector. She will also provide the development and enhancement of the statistics portfolio of the BVI FSC. The most recent position of Ms. McCall before this post was the Clerk of the House of Assembly of BVI.

Brand New BVI Website Launched by Digicel

Digicel, which officially started operations in the British Virgin Islands two weeks ago, now has announced the launch of its brand new website.

On the website, which adopts the new format across all of company's other markets in the region, Digicel will feature a host of information and offer full range of services to its customers and other interested persons. The address of the website is www.digicelbvi.com.

Alan Bates, CEO of Digicel BVI Ltd, noted that the innovative service presented by Digicel to its customers and the BVI public, is easy to use, accessible and quick. He also invited everyone to take a look at the site, explore the Digicel offers and learn more about the company.

Digicel purchased license to the BVI operations a year ago. Having invested over US$17 million in the BVI, the company has promoted strong competition into the telecommunications market in the territory, and was the first to bring the whole range of innovative products and services to the British Virgin Islands.

Digicel Launches in BVI

Caribbean operator Digicel Ltd. has launched services in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) by investing US $17 mln in the network for the country.

For Digicel, BVI is 25th market in the Caribbean and Central America and 30th market worldwide – with a population of 23,000 and 90% mobile coverage. Now the fastest growing mobile operator in the Caribbean region plans to provide coverage to 98% of the population, by building a brand new state-of-the-art network that includes innovations such as self-service top up machines with 24-hour access and online bill payment.

Colm Delves, CEO of Digicel Group, said that as the third entrant to the market (after CCT Global Communications and Cable & Wireless) they will drive competition by providing “the best coverage, best care and best value for the people of the country”. He also thanked the BVI Government for all of its assistance with their entrance to the market.

CEO of Digicel BVI is Alan Bates who has been with Digicel since 2003, serving as head of sales and distribution for the Dutch Caribbean region and sales director for Digicel Bermuda.

BVI is one of the most prosperous economies in the Caribbean, with rapidly developing tourism and financial services industry.

OECS Members Discuss the Start of Caribbean Economic Union

In order to consolidate the actions of the Caribbean region, its leaders have agreed to implement the project of Economic Union in 2009. The presidents of the nine countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) during the meeting in Montserrat's capital determined to speed up public consultations about the integration process, to make them effective the next year.

Dominica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines already began information exchange with their population about the project and its benefits to the economy of the region. Dominica also included in their consultation a proposal of Trinidad and Tobago, to achieve the OECS political integration by 2013.

One of the general ideas of the Economic Union project is to allow free workforce movement in the Caribbean area and to settle them together with their families.

The British Virgin Islands and Anguilla are associate members of the OECS. Full members of the organization are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia.