Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

182 In this regard, Governor King took advantage of the opening of the Sunset Crest branch of the Caribbean Commercial Bank in March 1990 and Governor Springer addressed the opening of the Warren’s branch of the Bank of Nova Scotia in October 1993. Governor Worrell’s remarks at the re-opening of the Wildey branch of First Caribbean International Bank in August 2011 were very much an endorsement of the efforts of commercial banks to assist the economy during difficult periods. Other aspects of the financial sector were also addressed; in December 1988, Governor King spoke about captive insurance, and in June 2003 Governor Williams’s address to an IDB/CDB-sponsored International Symposium and Seminar dealt with pension reform. However, a plethora of non-financial topics has also attracted the interest of the governors. A number of addresses focused on communications, public relations and the flow of information. These included Information Management and Economic Development (Governor Blackman, June 1983), Public Relations and the Economy (Governor King, August 1990) and Covering Economic and Financial Matters: Making it Easier for Journalists (Governor Williams, April 2008). Subjects as diverse as management skills (Governor King, 1991), the Social Partnership (Governor Cox, 1998), e-commerce (Governor Williams, 2000) and small businesses (Governor Worrell, 2012) have been the focus of some of these addresses. Speeches by the governors were not confined just to Barbados, helping to enhance the Bank’s image abroad. For example, Governor Blackman drew on the Bank’s experiences in an address to the 25th Anniversary celebrations of the Bank of Israel in 1979, when he spoke on the role of central banks in formulating national policy in small Governor Springer addressing the International Symposium on Forecasting in 1997.