CARICOM Project Presents Model Bills to Member States

Project to Harmonize Company and Insolvency Laws presents to annual meeting of company registrars and supervisors of insolvency

At the recently held annual meeting of company registrars and supervisors of insolvency of the 15 CARICOM member states, the team on the CARICOM Project to Harmonize Company and Insolvency Laws  presented a draft of the three model bills. Though the company registrars were not strangers to meeting on an annual basis, this being their 8th event, the meeting of the supervisors of insolvency, held at the suggestion of members of the project team, was the very first occasion on which the officials had met.

Across the five days, members of the project team, led by Dr Nicole Pierce  (BIICL Associate Researcher), presented the three draft texts, identifying areas of importance and highlighting issues on which policy guidance from the member states would be invited. The detail of key provisions was dissected, accompanied by a high-level overview of the changes that could be expected and derived from the proposals, which had been benchmarked against international standards and which were recommended as appropriate for the needs of regional development of the CARICOM group.

Further consultation is expected with the member states, at which time further key issues of national concern are expected to be raised, once the individual national authorities have had the opportunity to further scrutinise the detail of the texts. It is expected that the final version of the texts will be ready towards the end of 2023 and will be presented to the CARICOM Council of Ministers for approval.

The consultancy project, awarded to the BIICL in 2021, has been funded under the Eleventh European Development Fund (European Commission) relating to Strengthening for CARICOM Integration and Cooperation Process. Thanks are due to the partners for facilitating the event in July 2023.