Manning
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC:
PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning says the United Nations (U.N.) has pledged US$25 million to the relief efforts in Grenada.
In an interview with his Communications Department released there on Thursday night, Manning, who addressed the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York yesterday, said that the money was pledged during talks between Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Manning described the talks as "the first set of good news I have heard for a long time." He said the meeting discussed "the Grenada situation and the efforts of the United Nations to assist Grenada in the recovery efforts."
Grenada took a battering from Hurricane Ivan when it made its way through the region earlier this month, leaving a trail of destruction and death.
U.N. CO-ORDINATING
Manning said that the U.N. was co-ordinating with a number of financial institutions including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to lend assistance to Grenada.
Manning said he would use his address to the UNGA to "to draw attention to the disasters that have been taking place in the Caribbean occasioned largely by considerations of climate."
Manning also brought up the Haitian flood crisis in his address. Meanwhile, he said Port of Spain would provide US$5 million towards regional recovery efforts following hurricanes Frances and Ivan.
Speaking in the Bahamas prior to his arrival in New York, Manning said that Nassau and Cuba would each receive US$500,000, while more than US$600,000 would go to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and US$1.6 million each to Jamaica and Grenada.
DEBT PAYMENTS
He said the latest crisis in Grenada would result in that country defaulting on its debt payments. "Grenada's debt to gross domestic product ratio was 80 per cent before the hurricane and after the hurricane the Grenada representative reported to the heads of government that Grenada has no GDP today. So the debt to GDP ratio is infinite," Manning said.
"That is coming at a time when Dominica is before the IMF and we have already been formally asked to have some debt forgiveness in relation to Dominica. It is not the only country in the region in financial and economic difficulties Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts debt ratios is fairly high."
