Workers should be able to carry their savings and pensions with them wherever they travel within the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Premier Alex Scott told a pensions conference yesterday (Thurs).

Mr. Scott was speaking at the Second Annual Atlantic Connection pension education forum at the Grotto Bay Beach Hotel.

He told delegates that countries within the community, of which Bermuda is an associate member, should be able to conduct business as if they were in the same country.

"It's a concept but I think it's a concept whose time has come," he said.

Mr. Scott added that one of the benefits of the collaboration in terms of pension administration was the ability to share resources and best practices in order to come up with the best outcomes.

He said ideally employees should be able to work throughout Caricom and that their savings and pensions schemes should travel with them.

"Portability is a key issue. Countries like Barbados have some success in this area. We need to share information. That's the only way that we will learn, get better and reap the rich benefits of membership of Caricom.

"The future of our respective countries rests in our hands. Our unity is our greatest asset and our most significant strength."

Mr Scott said globalisation was a fact of life in today's world and that it "has its own logic based on the ideals and principles of the free market".

He said that in the light of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on the US and the tsunami in Asia he believed a global pensions fund was the way forward.

He said it would mean that "regional economies small and otherwise can have some type of resources to fall back on".