| President Bharrat Jagdeo says the regional trade and integration bloc CARICOM is heading for “bankruptcy” with many islands in the 15-nation group unable to pay debts and meet recurrent costs.“The region is heading toward bankruptcy if countries could be declared bankrupt,” Jagdeo told a press conference at his office in Georgetown yesterday.Jagdeo heads a task force of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) set up to look at ways the region could address the impacts of the global financial crisis.He said many of the countries in CARICOM are getting to the stage where Guyana,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, an original member of the 35-year-old group, was in 1992. Jagdeo stated: “At one stage we were bankrupt. In 1992, when you looked at payment for debt and payment of wages and salaries in the public sector it was 114% of revenue.When you have two items, just paying wages and salaries and debt and that’s more than your revenue, what remains to run the country? Many countries in the region are approaching that kind of position.”He said this has resulted because of a pernicious build up of debt and loss of productivity and the problem was compounded by a drop in revenues from tourism and financial services as a result of the global financial crisis.Jagdeo is a leading proponent of debt relief for the countries of the region.“It is very difficult to craft a regional debt strategy. The general lobby has to be one for debt relief for middle income countries that have peculiar vulnerabilities that are different than the large middle income countries.”Jagdeo and other Caribbean leaders met World Bank World Bank President Robert Zoellick in Dominica last weekend. Jagdeo said Zoellick agreed to set aside a team to work with CARICOM to create a debt management strategy for each country.Recognising that the global financial and economic crisis has been affecting several countries within CARICOM and generating serious social consequences,Cheap Stitched Jerseys, CARICOM Heads at a meeting held mid-2009 in Guyana agreed to establishing the task force with Jagdeo as chairman.The Task Force also comprises Prime Ministers Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago, Bruce Golding of Jamaica, Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent & the Grenadines,NFL Jerseys Wholesale, and David Thompson of Barbados.Additional technical members of the Task Force include the CARICOM Secretary-General; President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB); Director-General of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS); and the Director of the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance (CCMF).Jagdeo had previously explained that Jamaica has lost 60 per cent of its merchandise exports, Dominica had to secure an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund recently and Antigua and Barbuda,China NBA Jerseys, where the Stanford Group of Companies was based, has lost over 1,000 jobs which for a country of just over 100,000 people is a major setback.The Head of State noted that several countries within the region rely on services to generate their tax revenues and provide employment for their citizens, especially in the areas of financial services and tourism.However, the global crisis has had a severe impact on these two sectors, especially financial services which have been affected by the Madoff and Stanford scandals, and the general collapse of the financial industry around the world.Added to this, the G-20 group of countries has agreed to tough new offshore banking regulations that if implemented, will add to the difficulties faced by the industry in the Caribbean.In tourism, President Jagdeo had explained that people who usually travel to the Caribbean for vacations from Europe,NFL Jerseys China, Asia and the United States have less disposable income and cannot afford to visit the Caribbean in the numbers needed to maintain the sector.Also, Jagdeo has been critical of the decision by the UK Government to implement the Air Passenger Duty (APD) that would add US$1,NFL Jerseys Supply,000 to the fare of a family of four travelling to the Caribbean. |
