Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean,
north of Trinidad and Tobago. Consists of a group of 18 small islands
of which the largest is St Vincent.
It has a total surface
area of 389 sq km and a population of 116,812 (July 2003 est.) inhabitants.
The capital is Kingstown.
St Vincent & The Grenadines is an independent parliamentary democracy,
with a legal system based on common law. The currency is the Eastern Caribbean
Dollar (EC$) which is linked to the US$ at an exchange rate of 2.7 EC$
to 1 US$, and is managed by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank with headquarters
in St. Kitts.
Economy
Bananas and other agricultural products was the staple of this country's
economy. Today however, tourism is the biggest earner while a growing
offshore banking sector seems to be doing well.
The
Offshore Finance Authority was created by Parliament to institute a new
system to manage, direct, control and supervise the Offshore Financial
Services Industry in St
Vincent & The Grenadines.
After a number of closures in 2001, the sector now seems to be growing
in a stable fashion. Key sectors are banking, trusts, insurance and mutual
funds. There are about 10,000 International Business Companies. Historically,
St Vincent & The
Grenadines has
provided a high degree of confidentiality for investors, although an Exchange
of Information Act passed in 2002 has qualified this to a certain extent.
After adopting a number of new legislation, St
Vincent & The Grenadines
was given a clean bill of health by the FATF in June 2003. The FATF Implementation
Progress Report on SVG was very complimentary about the “substantial”
amount of training provided to financial institutions with respect to
anti-money laundering requirements. The report also had high praise for
the Financial Intelligence Unit, saying “cooperation provided by
the FIU has been excellent.” The FIU has been accepted into the
Egmont Group.
