ST GEORGE’S, Grenada – CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY (CARICOM) countries are to launch a fund to help the earthquake-battered Haiti, a senior CARICOM official has said. Deputy CARICOM Secretary-General, Colin Granderson, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that regional leaders, who  ended their two-day inter-sessional summit yesterday, will most likely announce the launch of the Haiti-CARICOM Development Fund as one of the outcomes of their deliberations.
He said that while the ceiling for the fund is still being worked out, “I think they want to start off with a US$100 million and they would certainly like to carry it as high as one billion dollars if possible”.
He said the fund would help the private sector in both CARICOM and Haiti, which is still recovering from the January 2010 earthquake that killed an estimated 300,000 people and left more than a million others homeless.
He said the new fund is different from the Regional Development Fund (RFD) that is used to help disadvantaged CARICOM Member States as the region goes forward with the implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows  the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the region.
“This (the Haiti-CARICOM fund) is totally different. This has to do with the reconstruction in Haiti and to give to the smaller companies, because what has been taking place for the time being is that large international companies are getting the contracts in Haiti.
Granderson, who is head of the Organization of American States (OAS) CARICOM Joint Electoral Mission (JEOM) in Haiti, said the new fund would also be different from the one involving the former president of the United States Bill Clinton and which  includes CARICOM.
“It is different in the sense that this will be a fund for which CARICOM and Haiti will be responsible,” he said, adding that it would most likely be funded by contributions from CARICOM and Haiti but also from outside donors,” he added. (CMC)