FACING UP TO DEBT WRITE-OFF

AT a time when the Caribbean Region is contending with new approaches in aid by the world’s developed and influential nations, there is a growing interest among Governments of the Caribbean Community for a revival of an old concern — debt relief, if not exactly for 100 percent write-off. The latest call within CARICOM for such a pursuit has come from the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Portia Simpson-Miller. It happened last Friday at a meeting of the United Nations in New York, during the United Nations Security Council debate on the “Peace and Security Challenges of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).”
Middle-income countries within CARICOM are faced with ongoing challenges in responding to debt payments. And in urging a concerted approach to this pressing problem, Prime Minister Simpson-Miller has commended a recent initiative by ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean).
The ECLAC initiative involves widening support for “comprehensive debt relief” for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) that would require the gradual write-off of 100 percent of their multilateral debt stock.
ECLAC’s debt write-off strategy is in the possession of all member Governments of our Caribbean Community, it having been submitted to them ahead of the recent Heads of Government Conference in Barbados.
In sensitising the ‘UN Security Council debate on Peace and Security’ on the urgency for methodical 100 percent debt write-offs burdening member states of this Region, the Jamaican Prime Minister emphasised that ECLAC’s recommended strategy deserves concentrated focus. “It’s worthy of serious consideration and support from the international community….,” she stated.
She has also emphasised that “the middle-income designation “foisted” on Jamaica and other CARICOM countries limits their ability to access critical development financing and places in jeopardy our ability to finance our sustainable development objectives.”
To his own credit, President of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank, Dr William warren Smith, has been engaged in sharing similar and related perspectives with CARICOM governments during rounds of scheduled bi-lateral meetings with them, as well as with private sector and civil society organisations.
We await to learn of how the Region as a whole is responding to the debt write-off strategy submitted by ECLAC.

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