Phillips hails CARICOM confab with G-20

By Michelle Nurse Last updated Apr 16, 2015

Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute, Amar Bhattacharya has the rapt attention of Finance and Planning Minister, Dr Peter Phillips at yesterday’s first Caribbean Regional Dialogue held with the G20 Working Development Group at the World Bank/ Inter-American Development Bank (IDB spring meeting in Washington DC on Monday, April 13, 2015 at IMF headquarters. At centre is Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Mr. Devon Rowe while at right is Mr. Wayne Robinson, a member of the Jamaican delegation. (Photo by Derrick Scott via Jamaica News)

Washington DC, April 14, 2015 – Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Peter Phillips, has welcomed the opportunity to co-chair yesterday’s first Caribbean Regional Dialogue with members of the G-20 Development Working Group, at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meeting in Washington DC.

In his opening remarks, Dr Phillips said he was of the impression that the session was of great value to the Caribbean, because it is the first time there has been an engagement between the Caribbean and the G20, in an organized fashion. He said that a dialogue of this nature, certainly allows us to bring to the attention of the G20 countries and the Development Working Group of the G20, the specific condition of the Caribbean region.

This condition Dr Phillips identified as the problem of low growth and high debt which affects the entire Caribbean region. The Jamaican Finance Minister said he was using this opportunity to bring to attention the fact that the Caribbean is still suffering the effects of the crisis of 2008-09 and pointed out that the consequences of that crisis are impeding the regions capacity to grow, particularly because of the high debt.

Read more at: Jamaica News