Jamaica’s new prime minister has said that the country will launch an offshore financial centre. The island is a member of the Caribbean economic co-operation group Caricom. This includes several successful offshore centres such as Barbados, Belize, Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The new PM, Bruce Golding said: "There are other islands in the Caribbean that have done very well in their offshore activities and we believe that it is an area that Jamaica can secure benefits from." Mr Golding, who is the leader of Jamaica Labour Party, admitted that 10 or 15 years ago he could "not have been prepared to consider" such a plan. But now, he said, the "regulatory mechanisms are sufficiently well developed to give us the kind of protection that we want in order to ensure that we are not taken advantage of." In the last month, Ghana has also announced that it will introduce offshore banking.