(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Guyana President, His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo, is drumming up political support for designing what he called a new development model for the Caribbean.

He said he would be working with his Caribbean Community (CARICOM) colleagues to advocate for support for this new development paradigm.

Speaking at a Press Conference at the 31st Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community at the Rose Hall Resorts and Spa in Montego Bay, Jamaica on Tuesday, President Jagdeo told journalists that in an effort to really deal decisively with its financial challenges the Caribbean needed to design a development model which considered their unique realities.

His press conference was held after CARICOM Heads of Government met with the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr Dominique Straus-Kahn, on Monday afternoon and discussed regional issues which were linked to broader global concerns.

In that meeting on Monday, Mr Strauss-Kahn told Caribbean leaders that the outlook for CARICOM was positive and that they had a chance to put an end to the “negative cycles of high debt and low growth” and to “put public finances on a sustainable path,” even while effecting appropriate measures to raise productivity. He cautioned however that the global crisis was not yet over and as such Caribbean governments should not become complacent.

The Guyana President, who has Lead responsibility for Agriculture in the Quasi Cabinet of the Conference of Heads of Government told the press conference that he was pleased with the response of the Managing Director of IMF who indicated his awareness of the major challenges facing CARICOM and had pledged his willingness to give support both in the long and medium term.

President Jagdeo reported that CARICOM made its case to the IMF for special consideration in terms of increased access to more resources in order to deal with their short term financial challenges, even while working towards the development of a long term strategy for the Caribbean to respond to global challenges.

However, the Guyana President argued that the United Nations needed to change its development paradigm to accommodate a new model for the Caribbean, noting that the “one size fits all approach’ could not adequately serve the needs of Small Island Developing States which were grappling with global as well as environmental challenges.

He added that the United Nations seemed to focus more on the Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) and that the Member States of CARICOM did not seem to fit neatly into any of the UN defined categories.

A new development paradigm, President Jagdeo explained, would support the argument for special treatment in areas such as environment and climate change, sustainable development and security.

Contact: piu@caricom.org