Last week, a delegation of the Dutch Caribbean Securities Exchange (DCSX) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Kingston, Jamaica with the Jamaican Stock Exchange (JSE).

This cooperation is a result of the revised strategy of the DCSX where partnerships are built with other trading platforms in the region as well as in Europe and Latin America. The main goal is to connect with these platforms to gain access to each other’s relevant investor and corporate client networks. For Curaçao this will lead to better availability of risk-bearing capital, resulting in alternative financing possibilities for local entrepreneurs. This will result in better economic activity and related employability.

The JSE, founded in 1969, has developed itself in such a way that in the last 15-20 years a well-functioning capital market for local small and medium-sized enterprises emerged in Jamaica. The JSE’s approach and organizational structure are examples of the future development of the DCSX. Via the MOU the DCSX can learn and rely on the JSE experience. The JSE is planning to roll out its activities in the region in the period to come. The JSE offers intensive investor education programs to the local Jamaican public. This resulted in an active Jamaican investor community of over 250,000 investors!

It is this specific skill set and knowledge that the DCSX will use, with the help of the JSE, to roll out the education programs on the islands of the Dutch Caribbean. The DCSX will start this activity in the first quarter of 2023 in Curaçao, later to be followed on the other Islands. Next to that, the DCSX and the JSE will work closely together to connect each other’s trading platforms and to start a joint marketing program toward potential international listing corporate candidates in Latin America.

The DCSX is very happy with this announcement of the JSE MOU signing after last week’s announcement about the DCSX recognition of its status as a recognized securities exchange by the HMRC from the United Kingdom. The DCSX is expecting further announcements soon about partnerships in the region as well as in The Netherlands. This will further prove the position of Curaçao as an international hub in the financial sector.

Rene Romer (Commercial advisor DCSX), Dr. Marleen Street Forest (CEO JSE), Walter Blijleven (Board member DCSX), Dirk-Jan de Graaff (CEO DCSX) and Auben Hill (Minister of Industry, Investment & Commerce Jamaica).