Liberalization must therefore be balanced against stability. The latter being the more important. Many Caribbean economies have identified services as a key sector which offers faster prospects of internationalization. Caribbean economies have realized that they can accelerate development of their services sector even before the manufacturing sector matures.
This is certainly the case with some international financial centres (usually termed “offshore centres”) whose manufacturing sectors had not yet reached the levels of sophistication of many developed countries, but whose services sectors have grown exponentially. Barbados, Bahamas, Bermuda and Cayman are well-known examples. Support services are very critical to the development of the services sector in the Caribbean.