(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) CARICOM Secretary-General His Excellency Edwin Carrington has emphasised the need for a new growth paradigm within the Caribbean, as well as a new vision for achieving sustainable high rates of growth and equitable development within the Region.

Addressing the 35th Annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in Georgetown, Guyana on Thursday May 19, the CARICOM Secretary-General pointed out that "within the last decade and a half, the average rate of growth of CARICOM countries has barely exceeded two percent". He said taking into account the developments within the Global economy and particularly in preferential markets," there was need clearly for a new vision for transformation and development".

Mr. Carrington emphasised the tremendous importance of the CARICOM Development Fund which was designed to deal with the phenomenon of low levels of development in addition to sectoral and enterprise dislocation relating to the operations of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, as well as the social and economic disorder of natural disasters."

"Our Region, as we all know, is characterised by considerable disparity in per capita income between countries, and there is not much evidence that this disparity is diminishing as a result of the normal operations of the market place. There is also significant disparity within CARICOM countries, which is reflected in persistently high levels of poverty," Mr. Carrington said.

However he cautioned that while the CARICOM Development Fund would be a very important addition in the fight against under-development, "There is no lessening of the need for the Bank to bolster the poverty reduction-oriented public sector investment programmes of Borrowing Member Countries. Equally there is an urgent need to accelerate the implementation of the recently approved Private Sector Strategy," he noted.

The CARICOM Secretary-General appealed to the Governors of the CDB to admit Haiti and Suriname as Borrowing Member Countries and hoped that the Formal Meeting of Contributors to the CDF would achieve its replenishment objectives. He concluded by pointing out that while the resource deficit continues to be as wide as ever, the CDB remains as crucial to the future of CARICOM's integration process and development as it was when it was first established in 1969.