Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. is in New York City for a series of meetings to explore “collaborative business opportunities” between the U.S. Virgin Islands and representatives of the public and private business sectors in that state, Government House announced.
In a press release announcing the initiative, Bryan touted the trip as an opportunity to position the USVI “as the new financial center hub in the Caribbean region for publicly traded companies.”
Bryan and a delegation of public and private sector representatives from the USVI are set to meet Friday with New York Stock Exchange senior management executives, Government House said.
In addition, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, members of his administration, other high-level city officials, along with other prominent stakeholders of the state’s business community, will host Bryan during a USVI-New York Summit on Friday, organized by the St. Croix Economic Development Initiative, or SEDI, the release stated.
Bryan also will participate in a Memorandum of Understanding signing with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, for greater cooperation and engagement of business exchanges between New York and the USVI, it said.
“I look forward to my visit to the New York Stock Exchange and the economic development meetings with the New York business community,” Bryan said. “This visit opens up opportunities to explore developing economic partnerships to create new markets and position the U.S. Virgin Islands as the new financial center hub in the Caribbean region for publicly traded companies.”
SEDI is a St. Croix-based nonprofit organization that serves as a macroeconomic and public policy think tank in the areas of business, economic development, and capital markets formation and structures, according to Government House. It will introduce and launch its Caribbean Americas Single Economy, or CASE, regional project initiative during the USVI delegation’s New York visit.
“We are pleased to welcome Governor Bryan, Mayor Adams and members of their delegations to the New York Stock Exchange for a robust conversation on economic development,” said John Tuttle, NYSE vice-chairman and president of the NYSE Institute. “These discussions highlight the great opportunities that can be created by leveraging public- and private-sector collaboration and our U.S. capital markets.”
The SEDI-CASE New York Summit is an effort to position the territory to be a gateway to help facilitate companies with going public throughout the Americas and the Caribbean and gain better access to the U.S. capital markets, said Government House.
The meetings will kick off Friday at 8 a.m. at the New York Stock Exchange, and then continue to Brooklyn at noon for the roundtable discussion and signing of the MOU with the Chambers of Commerce.
“The New York business and public sector communities are excited about the USVI Delegation visit being led by Governor Bryan because of the shared history of people, technology and communication infrastructures and exponential ecosystem expansion,” said Anthony Weeks, an economic envoy to Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region in the Americas.
“Some of the areas of focus for the New York meetings will be international trade; commerce; capital finance and investments; transportation logistics; tourism; and education and workforce development between the USVI and New York,” said Weeks, the founder of OUR television and Kalaloo Alliance Media.
