(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) needed to deduce best practice responses of individual Member States to the global financial and economic crisis that could be emulated by the entire Community.

This was the view expressed yesterday, Friday, by Dr Maurice Odle, Economic Adviser to the CARICOM Secretary-General as he pointed out that the global financial and economic crisis was still unfolding and uncertainty surrounded the Region’s rate of recovery once the crisis had `bottomed out’.

He warned that the crisis was still deepening and pointed to the projections of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which stated that economies in the Region would suffer significantly this year.

Dr. Odle was at the time participating via videoconferencing from Bridgetown, Barbados in a media clinic anchored at the CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana. The media clinic was aimed at apprising the media of the main issues that would engage the attention of the Thirtieth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government to be held in Georgetown, Guyana 2-5 July 2009.

Outlining some of the initiatives that had been taken to cushion the effects of the crisis, Dr. Odle pointed out that there was scope for countries to secure resources from the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and encouraged Member States to make approaches to the various facilities. The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), he noted, was “very instrumental” in stimulating activity in the Region, disbursing about US$250M in loans since the last quarter of 2008.

Dr Odle reminded the media that at the regional level, a Task Force was established at a Caucus of Heads of Government on 24 May 2009 in Trinidad and Tobago and among its mandates was devising a strategy to concretise the Region’s mode of approach to the IFI’s. The four-member Task Force must also consider the mode of operation of the various economies to determine how to fill financial gaps that existed.

His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM had in his opening statement alluded to the crisis as one of the key issues under the cluster of Economic Development items, one of four clusters that the Heads of Government would consider at the meeting. The other clusters are Human and Social Development, Strengthening the Community and Strengthening Alliances/Forging New Relations.