Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
A house that was completely destroyed by Hurricane Ivan on September 10, 2004. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts and Nevis:
THE CARIBBEAN Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), which has been established to insure regional governments, will be ready to present details and prices of its coverage to regional governments in August.
Joseph Matalon, chairman of CGM Group, which won the bid to establish the insurance policy, said he was hopeful that the fund would be ready for the next hurricane season based on expected international donor support needed to capitalise the fund at a minimum of US$50 million.
"It's really intended to be a means for the treasuries of the affected countries to get cash very, very quickly without any strings attached immediately after a catastrophe so that more quickly respond in terms of bringing infrastructure more up to mark," said Mr. Matalon who was in St. Kitts to give a briefing on the progress of the fund to the 27th Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government held at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, in Basseterre.
The fund began in January with an open tender following a donation by the World Bank funded by the Japanese Government and is to be operated by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund. Dr. Simon Young, a Washing-ton-based catastrophe risk consultant, who is in charge of the risk assessing, said that donor interest was coming from the United Kingdom, United States and Canada.
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
"Generally the countries that support the Caribbean in disaster preparedness and relief see this as a good opportunity to broaden that support that will hopefully limit the money that they will have to put in after a disaster because we are hoping that governments will become self-sufficient if they have this money coming in early on rather than things falling apart as they have done in the past," said Dr. Young.
