Caribbean will follow demands from France - Ingraham

Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham believes Caribbean countries named by France as tax havens will have no choice but to comply with the measures outlined by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force.

"The reality is ... the developed world has to fund their social systems and revenue becomes less and less available for them to do so more and more efforts will be made to find additional sources of revenue," he told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

Referring to places "where some of the wealthy of the world hide their monies," Ingraham said "the reality is the developed world doesn't really believe we ought to be in financial services as we are and they are taking every step to drive back on shore the things we are doing,"" he said.

Earlier this month, French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking at the end of the G20 summit in France, named 11 countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados, as tax havens for failing to meet transparency standards.

The three Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have dismissed the French position and former regional diplomat Sir Ronald Sanders said the Caribbean needed to adopt a united position on the issue.

But Ingraham told CMC while he was not surprised at the French position, he could recall a similar position in which The Bahamas found itself, leaving Nassau in the end with no choice but to comply and sign a tax agreement with the United States.

"I was not surprised by the comments of President Sarkozy in relation to the countries in the region, but I noticed he included Switzerland and that gave me some comfort.

"The reality is, and all of us in the financial services business we have to do business with the developed world and so the strength to which we holler and scream is part satisfaction for ourselves, but at the end of the day we have to comply," he said.

Ingraham said, "in The Bahamas, for instance, we virtually swore we would never sign a tax-information agreement, (but) the Americans used their might and we ended up signing with them. We firmly said we will not do so with anybody else in the world. That was a one-off deal just because of our relations with them ...we ended up signing with everybody".

"It is ironic that Barbados is now been categorised by the French in that way, but Barbados will do what is necessary to comply and so will all," he added.

Ingraham told CMC that the economy of his country had improved over the past few months, adding, "we are making some progress, there has been some stabilisation ... revenue is beginning to climb back up ... and the government has been able to stimulate the economy significantly".

He said the public investment programme has been "huge" in getting the economy moving , with tourism doing "fairly well".