( L - R ) DAVIES AND GILLINGS
KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC:
JAMAICA YESTERDAY signed a US$1.8 million grant agreement with Japan to conduct a Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) viability study that would allow regional states to buy insurance coverage against natural disasters.
Under the project to be carried out by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), Kingston will receive US$800,000, while the nine-member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) will receive US$1 million.
Finance Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, signed the agreement with Katsumi Maruoka, counsellor of political science and general public affairs in the Japanese Embassy.
Mr. Mruoka said his govern-ment had conceptualised an insurance fund that would cover the entire region and he hoped it could quickly be moved from concept to implementation.
Nine countries have so far expressed an interest in the insurance fund, including St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Kitts-Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica, Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda. No non-CARICOM territory has yet been included in the programme.
Dr. Davies said it planned to expand the project within CARICOM before the scope was expanded further.
OPPORTUNE INTERVENTION
Under the facility, client governments will be provided with immediate liquidity in case an adverse natural event such as a hurricane or earthquake, of a predefined magnitude, affects them.
Dr. Davies described the agreement as an opportune intervention, given the adverse effects that hurricanes have had on the island and region within the past year.
"This is a very important grant agreement with the Japanese Government, which has been facilitated by the World Bank. It is an unfortunate but opportune time and I want to thank the Japanese Government and the World Bank," he said.
Following the devastation caused by natural hazards in the Caribbean in 2004, CARICOM governments had asked the World Bank for assistance with gaining access to affordable and effective disaster risk financing arrangements.
The World Bank and Japan have expressed confidence in the ability of the JSIF to carry out the project.
"All payments will be made via JSIF and we look forward to even greater collaboration," Dr. Wayne Henry, liaison officer with the World Bank, said.
JSIF managing director, Scarlette Gillings, said that the preliminary studies and research work would begin immediately with the draft of final reports expected by June 2006 and final reports to be presented in September 2006.
