21st Inter-Sessional Heads of CARICOM Meeting convened at the Fort Young Hotel, Roseau, Dominica

Ten heads of states along with their delegation and other Ministers of Government from thirteen Caribbean countries gathered at the Fort Young Hotel on Thursday 11th March, 2010 for the 21st Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Caribbean Heads of Government. The normal opening ceremony had to be set aside to accommodate the packed programme of activities scheduled for the meeting. Among issues looked at were:

According to the Chairman of CARICOM, Hon. Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, speaking at a press conference at the start of the two-day meeting, the meeting with President Zoellick came as a result of a meeting last year in Istanbul Turkey where President Zoellick and His Excellency, President Bharrat Jagdeo, of Guyana had some discussions.

“This meeting with the President came on the heels of an interaction between the then Chairman of CARICOM, the President of Guyana and other heads of Government in Istanbul, Turkey. We raised with the President of the World Bank a number of issues which continue to confront us in the region and he consented to meet with us at our next CARICOM meeting.”

The Chairman noted that a number of issues were brought up with President Zoellick including Haiti, debt forgiveness, water, climate change and tax haven. He was grateful for the presence of the World Bank President at the end of the meeting with President Zoellick on Thursday, March 11, 2010.

“We wanted to publicly place on record our gratitude to President Zoellick, President of the World Bank and his delegation for being here with us in Dominica meeting with heads of the Caribbean Community. We all know how challenging his duties are, particularly with what is happening around the world. However, he has continued to demonstrate his interest and commitment and dedication to the Caribbean Community and today, we had what all of us have termed to have been a very constructive engagement with the World Bank.

We in the Caribbean Community will give our full support to the World Bank as we seek to forget an even deeper and stronger partnership.”

The Chairman noted that over the years, the World Bank has been very much involved in the Caribbean citing the Basic Education Reform Project as an example of such involvement. He said that as a result of the BERP, there has been almost sixty percent (60%) increase in student attendance at the Secondary School level in particular.

The Chairman publicly voiced his support for an increased in capital for the World Bank.

“We would like to say to you, Mr. President, in the presence of the media that we in Dominica support full heartedly the capital increase for the World Bank because we believe if that happens, then the World Bank will be in a better position to respond to some of the challenges which are confronting us.”

The President was also thanked for the critical role that it has been playing in Haiti.

“We also thank the World Bank for its pivotal role in Haiti, before the earthquake, during the recovery effort and certainly as we move along on towards the reconstruction of Haiti.”

President Zoellick was delighted to be in Dominica and explained why he wanted to be part of this CARICOM meeting.

“As the Prime Minister has indicated, one of the reasons that I wanted to come was to take the opportunity to listen and learn from the Heads of Government. Sessions like this are enormously valuable for my colleagues and me so we can take the work that we do every day with the ministers to be able to compare it with the sense of priorities of the Heads of Government. CARICOM is a very important programme. We recognise that there are special developmental challenges of small island states. I have had the opportunity to work with CARICOM at different capacities for many years and I know that the region has got some extraordinary leadership and it is in our interest to try to help them achieve greater growth and overcome poverty for their people.”

President Zoellick said that among the decisions taken on Haiti is the setting up of a special trust fund for the pooling of financial resources to aid the Haitian Government.

“We are in the process of doing the assessment of the damage for Haiti. We are working with our partners for the creating of a special trust fund, talking with Haitians that are with the reconstruction authority. As we heard the Foreign Minister said today that there are immediate concerns about the here and now: issues of shelter, particularly as one approaches the rain.”

He went on to say that he was pleased with the efforts of CARICOM especially with the appointment of a special representative on behalf of CARICOM for Haiti.

Also coming out of the discussions with the World Bank, according to the President Zoellick, was how the World Bank can tie its efforts with CARICOM in Haiti’s reconstruction and his outlook on the world’s financial status. Notwithstanding the global financial crisis over the past two years, President Zoellick was optimistic that CARICOM could draw from the recent turn around.

“Obviously, this region has been hit pretty hard by drops in tourism, remittances, exports and lower investments. However, we also hope that there are some opportunities as the world economy recovers so that the Caribbean countries can leverage off that.”

On the issue of safety nets for CARICOM countries, the President said that most of the countries in the region are trying to expand to help those that are least advantaged while the World Bank is working with countries around the world as to how to go about doing that most effectively.

He has offered to assist countries in the Caribbean region that are interested in debt restructuring to send teams to device strategies as to how best to address it.

“The international community help provide debt forgiveness for the poorest countries in this region, that is, Haiti and Guyana. But a number of other countries that are middle income countries have different debt issues. So what I suggested to CARICOM, in October of 2009, is that we would try to look country by country at their debt profiles; you see each situation is different: its amount of debt, whether the debt is owned publicly or private, whether it is international or domestic. In some countries, the debt is significantly owed to their own private sector financial institutions or pension funds. We would outline, country by country, some options in trying to deal with this.

I reported back to our initial work and offered to send teams to each country who is interested to try to see whether one could develop a strategy that focuses on growth but putting fiscal management and effective use of debt first. We could also look at some of the issues of what else can one do, such as building insurance for some of the natural calamities which tend to create a spike in debt. We can also look at any experience we have with Jamaica and others whether that one approach involving talking with some of the creditors about voluntary debt restructuring with maturity in terms of whether we and the IMF and others could support that idea.”

President Zoellick said that the next step in the process would be for the countries that are interested to ask the World Bank to have teams from the World Bank come out and help them.

With regards to climate change, the President of the World Bank said that the World Bank already have projects in place to address the issue. However, he believes that with some of the additional pledges of additional financial support in the international community, CARICOM can devise means and ways to source some of those funds.

Coming out of the CARICOM 21st Inter-Sessional meeting, it was decided that CARICOM will support the priorities of the Government of Haiti.

“We have indicated that whatever resources the Caribbean Community put together that those resources would be sent directly to the Government of Haiti.”

The Chairman voiced his concern over what he considers to be lack of confidence by the International Community in the Government of Haiti in managing its finances.

“We have heard of several hundreds of millions of dollars raised on behalf of the Haitian people but in our interaction with the President of Haiti; he has indicated to us that those resources have not come to the Government of Haiti. When the Haitians hear via the media that over three hundred million dollars have been raised for Haiti and they are not seeing those monies coming forward from their Government, it gives them the impression that their Government is corrupt, when in fact that the money was not channelled directly through the Government.”

CARICOM Heads at the 21st Inter-Sessional (Back from left to right: Hon. Dr. Ewart Brown - Premier of Bermuda, Hon. Herbert Ingriham – Prime Minister of Bahamas, Hon. Stephenson King – Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Hon. David Thompson – Prime Minister of Barbados, Hon. Baldwin Spencer – Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Representative from St. Vincent, Hon. Tilman Thomas – Prime Minister, Grenada, Former Prime Minister of Jamaica and Special Envoy to Haiti, P. J. Patterson) (Front from left to right: President of Haiti - Hon. René Préval, President of Guyana – His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo, CARICOM Secretary General – Sir Edwin Carrington, Dominica’s Prime Minister – Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit, representative from Suriname, Prime Minister of Jamaica, Hon. Bruce Golding, Prime Minister of St. Kitts/Nevis – Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas)

The Haitian Government needs three hundred and sixty-five million dollars to address the very pressing challenges. However, the Government was only able to put together twenty percent (20%) of the total revenue before the earthquake struck.

The Caribbean Single Market Economy was reviewed and it was felt that a lot more work needs to be done. A detailed work plan for the advancement of the CSME is expected to be presented at the July CARICOM Summit.
Also addressed at the 21st Inter-Sessional was water. Many countries across the Caribbean continue to experience low water and water shortages due to the ongoing drought. Some countries have already implemented measures to restrict the use of water. CARICOM agreed to that a joint meeting be held before the heads meeting in July 2010 to provide a wide range of immediate, short-term and long term measures on sustainable water management.

CARICOM also welcomed the launching of the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency on the 18th of March, 2010 in Suriname. The formation of this agency is critical for advancing the thrust of agriculture development and for the facilitation of regional and international trade.

CARICOM heads, during the two-day Inter-Sessional, agreed to increase the capital levels of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). It was decided that each of the heads would engage their parliaments on a political level to get them to increase the contributions to the CDB. At present, the CDB is receiving requests way beyond the resources it has at present and therefore there is a need to increase the capital of the CDB in order for it to be able to help the burrowing by member states to address their social and economical challenges and the same can be said of the World Bank. CARICOM believes that there has to be an increase in the capitalisation of the World Bank so as to respond to some of the challenges and requests of member states.

The Meeting also endorsed the re-election of His Excellency José Miguel Insulza as Secretary General of the Organisation of American States and that of the Inter-American Development Bank.

The number of countries needed to sign up for the implementation of CARIPASS was obtained at the two-day conference. It is expected that the first phase will be operational by the 1st of July. This is seen as a major step towards hassle-free travel for the Caribbean Public. CARIPASS is a new concept of passengers being electronically processed through immigration check points is a growing trend in the international arena. In this regard, CARICOM is now seeking to embrace this new technology to further enhance the travel experience of CARICOM Nationals and legal residents.

CARIPASS would entitle current holders of passports issued by CARICOM Member States and legal residents, who are 16 years and over, to become part of a trusted traveller regime once they have been deemed eligible. CARIPASS holders would be expeditiously processed through specially designed self service gates at airports and eventually sea ports and could proceed directly to Baggage Arrival and Customs Halls.

The cards are alternative travel documents for regional travel and are valid for periods of one or three years at a cost to be determined according to international norms.

The travel card (CARIPASS) will be issued at national passport and immigration headquarters and is being designed to assist the frequent regional traveller in avoiding long immigration lines at the airport. For more information on CARIPASS can be found at http://www.caripass.org.

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