Jamaica Minister wants more international support for Caribbean

By Michelle Nurse On Dec 22, 2014

Finance and Planning Minister, Dr. the Peter Phillips (right); Minister with Responsibility for the Public Service, Ministry of Finance and Planning, Hon. Horace Dalley (2nd left); and Co-Chair, Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC), Richard Byles (left), share a light moment with Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) President, Luis Alberto Moreno (centre); and IDB Country Representative in Jamaica, Therese Turner-Jones, during Friday’s (December 19) private sector luncheon at Knutsford Court Hotel, New Kingston.(JIS Photo)

Finance and Planning Minister ofJamaica, Dr. Peter Phillips, has repeated his call for a “new agenda” of support for Caribbean states by international finance institutions, to effectively address vulnerabilities related to climate change and significant debt, which regional territories currently experience.

Speaking at a private sector luncheon for Inter-American Development (IDB) President, Luis Alberto Moreno, in Kingston, Dr. Phillips said that not only should the international community acknowledge the challenges faced but “it is time that they and (ourselves) move into the operational phase with a new agenda of support for the Caribbean.”

He noted that in the Caribbean, “where most of the region’s countries are deemed to be middle income –a definition which inadequately describes the reality, given the poverty and structural rigidities that the region is grappling with – there have been promises of a global response, since the 2008 (global financial) crisis. However, that response has not yet come forth.”