In an interview with media operatives earlier yesterday, at the Guyana International Conference Centre where the 30th Heads of Government Conference was being held, St Vincent Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves disclosed that new CARICOM Chairman, Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo has been appointed the Chairman of the CARICOM Task Force to superintend the region’s response to the global economic crisis. Prime Minister Gonsalves explained that the Task Force – the first regional task force of a political nature – has two central motives: to mobilise resources internationally, and to identify specific areas in which the region can move forward in a more coordinated and focused manner.

The Task Force, which comprises, among others, Prime Ministers Patrick Manning, (Trinidad and Tobago) Bruce Golding,(Jamaica) Ralph Gonsalves, David Thompson (Barbados) and President Jagdeo, is expected to be set in motion soon, considering the urgency of the issues it seeks to address.

Prime Minister of Belize Dean Barrow, the first CARICOM Head of State to speak at the opening of the 30th Meeting of the Heads of Government of CARICOM, said the global financial and economic crisis has had a profoundly negative impact on the Region’s integration enterprise. In this regard, the outcome this Task Force hopes to achieve is of paramount importance.

This special Task Force will receive support from other key personalities within the region, including other Prime Ministers, similar parallel arrangements from within CARICOM member states and other organisations as well.

“There is a parallel kind of institution headed by me, in the Joint Task Force between the OECS and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank to do precisely this kind of work; so work in the OECS will be fed into this,” Dr Gonsalves explained.

Echoing the sentiments of Prime Minister Barrow, Dr Gonsalves acknowledged the profound setback the global economic crisis has caused the region, and opined that the region must address this reality as one unit.

Prime Minister Gonsalves said: “We all know the magnitude of the problems we are facing. We have defined it over and over; we know the essence of the crisis; we got to do something together regionally.” (GINA)