(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) With three weeks to go before the launch of the CARICOM Single Market on 1 January 2006, Finance Ministers of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will meet in Kingston, Jamaica on Monday 12 December to finalise plans for the operation of a critical element of the Single Market.
CARICOM’s Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP) will convene its First Special Meeting at the Jamaica Pegasus to make recommendations for putting into operation the Development Fund for Disadvantaged Countries, Region and Sectors. The Fund was established by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). It is intended to provide financial or technical assistance to those countries, regions and sectors which are determined to be adversely affected by the operation of the Single Market.
A Disadvantaged Country as defined by the Revised Treaty includes the countries comprising the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and Belize which have all been classified as Less Developed Countries (LDC). Member States that may require special support measures of a transitional or temporary nature due to: natural disasters; the adverse impact of the CSME on their economies; and temporarily low levels of economic development or have been designated a Highly-Indebted Poor Country (HIPIC) have also been included in the category of Disadvantaged Countries.
A Disadvantaged Region has been defined as regions within Member States experiencing economic dislocation from the operation of the CSME or may require special support measures of a transitional or temporary nature due to natural disasters and temporarily low levels of economic development.
Disadvantaged Sectors refer to sectors of the economy that experience economic dislocation from the operation of the CSME and sectors that require special support measures of a transitional or temporary nature due to natural disasters which caused social and economic disorder due to loss in the sector.
The Finance Ministers will also discuss the manner of operation and management structure of the Petroleum Fund that has been established to cushion the effect of high oil prices on Member States. The use of these funds would be for poverty alleviation, implementation of disaster prevention or mitigation measures and disaster recovery in emergency cases. The Fund, a proposal from Trinidad and Tobago, was agreed to in May 2005.
The Ministers, during their one-day meeting, will also advance work on the implementation structure for establishing an integrated capital market in the community.
