CARICOM HEADS of government have invoked a new dimension to their policy of engagement with “high-level guests” invited “for exchange of views” during their regular annual summit. This had the immediate effect of cancellation of a meeting with officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank scheduled for the 30th CARICOM summit that concluded here yesterday.

It was, however, done without prejudice to a decision taken at a caucus session to appoint a special Task Force of five CARICOM leaders, headed by Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo, to dialogue with the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) as part of an overall strategy to combat the negative impacts on the region’s economy, resulting from the global economic and financial crisis.

The four other Heads of Government identified for the Task Force are the Prime Ministers of Barbados (David Thompson); Jamaica (Bruce Golding);  St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Ralph Gonsalves); and Trinidad and Tobago (Patrick Manning).

An official statement on this development was expected to be included in the Communique to be released last evening on the deliberations and decisions of the summit. The Task Force is to benefit from technical inputs from regional experts and officials, and the top officials of the CARICOM and OECS Secretariats.  

In an apparent effort to avoid the leading international financial institutions (IFIs) and organisations ignoring invitations extended to the top representatives, the leaders have, for the first time, declined alternative ‘nominees’ at low levels for exchange of views. 

This new approach, which coincides with fresh initiatives by CARICOM to have better access to the IFIs for concessional funding in the face of the global financial and economic crisis, resulted in cancellations of invitations to top officials of the IMF and World Bank. 

A scheduled meeting with the President of the Dominican Republic (member state of CARIFORUM) was altered to a meeting between CARICOM Foreign Ministers and a Vice Minister on Foreign Affairs from the DR.

Also affected, it was reliably informed, was a proposed meeting with either the Secretary – General of the United Nations or a high-level alternative nominee.

In contrast, a meeting was scheduled for yesterday with the President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

That would have made the third head of an international institution/organisation present for the encounters with the CARICOM leaders. The two others were the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and the Organisation of American States.

Today, the Community leaders are scheduled to have a private working session with the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), who was to arrive in Guyana late yesterday for an “interaction” on CARICOM’s approach to a global climate change programme. 

In their work programme, planned for the three-day summit, the CARICOM leaders  had indicated their desire to discuss with the invited high-level guests from the IMF and World Bank, their proposed strategy for accessing resources from these IFIs.

The invitation for “exchange of views” was made against the backdrop of new funds recently allocated by the G-20 nations for improved funding to poor and developing nations to help combat the consequences of the global economic crisis, and CARICOM’s strategy to “arrest further economic decline.”