(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) has started a series of consultative missions designed to make the organisation responsive to CARICOM Member States who are to be the first beneficiaries of grants, interest subsidies and concessionary loans.

The Caribbean Community agreed that these Member States are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana and Belize.

CDF Chief Executive Officer Lorne McDonnough led a three person delegation to St. Vincent and the Grenadines on 2 June 2009 to inform of the CDFs role, mandate and progress.

Ambassador Mcdonnough and his team will continue to meet Heads of Government, Government Officials, Private Sector and Non-Government stakeholders in the Member States.

The Missions along with the results of a subsequent European funded Needs Assessment Study will guide the CDF’s areas of focus and interventions during its first funding cycle.

This round of Missions is expected to conclude with a visit to Belize commencing on 26 June 2009. Similar consultations will be mounted in the remaining Member States at a later date.

The CARICOM Development Fund was established under Article 158 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to address the disadvantages arising from the implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) process. The CDF is based in Barbados.