Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is seeking international support for a new economic model that President Bharrat Jagdeo said that needed to meet regional specificity.

Support for new models are being studied and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of several multilateral financial institutions to join the CARICOM leaders in Dominica in March to discuss this, President Jagdeo told reporters here.

Jagdeo, CARICOM Chairman and current chairman of the regional economic task force to overcome the impact of the global economic crisis on the 15-member community, stated that the regional economic development model has been pursuing unsustainable given its uniqueness.

The impact of the global crisis and climate change are two main issues before the Commonwealth leaders at their 20th summit here, the President told reporters on Saturday.

He said the large debt overhang and spend large amounts to service debt has affected the community’s ability to intervene in the crisis that has great impact on its members.

He noted that the second largest industry in the region – tourism and financial sectors – has been affected and the capacity and fiscal space for anti-cyclical spending has been limited because of debt overhang.

“There’s no way we will build a decent medium-term economic strategy without a change in the model”, Jagdeo insisted.

He said that CARICOM heads Saturday advocated a respectful approach to the global economic system.

Most major countries talk about their efforts to support the demand at the global level through the G20 and it is important for the future and for countries to pursue free trade as a way to expand the global GDP, he admitted.

“But for countries like us, many things will sometimes negative impact – the impact of reciprocity and the elimination of preferences that have caused damage to two main industries in the Caribbean – sugar and bananas.”

He said CARICOM argued that the model would be feasible for the Caribbean will be one who sees the country debt relief for middle-income countries, and special treatment in the global trading system; dedicated instruments of multilateral financial institutions (MFIs) to target specific areas of vulnerability – such as contingent credit lines to handle hurricanes and other natural disasters that have systemic impact their communities.

New economic models and climate change are two major issues for the region, he said, adding, “It is vital that we recommend to both and that we are seeking support from various countries around the world because of this support will be crucial when we got to the WTO (World Trade Organization ) or when we take specific steps to address this issue on the boards of the multilateral financial institutions. ”

Jagdeo said World Bank President, Deputy Managing Director International Monetary Fund (IMF), President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and United Nations Secretary will be at the intersessional meeting of CARICOM Dominica in March.

“I hope that with their support coupled with political support, especially from countries in the G20, we may be able to get some progress in this regard”, he said.

The President chaired a meeting Saturday between CARICOM and the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and said he was handling the impact of the global financial crisis in the Caribbean.

“We ask for support of this model that we intend to pursue”, he said.

He noted that two current UK initiatives are in conflict with local efforts to develop the financial sector is important and tourism sectors.

Air Passenger Duty (APD) conducted by the United Kingdom has a discriminatory impact by making the Caribbean a lot more expensive for British tourists to visit the Caribbean while being less expensive for them to go to Hawaii or Vancouver are almost twice as far from London as Barbados.

Jagdeo said CARICOM requested Brown to rebranding of the Caribbean, and he suggested that British society work together with Chancellor of the Exchequer about this.

CARICOM countries are also experiencing difficulties in many parts of the world on the signing of tax information exchange agreement out of the `gray list ‘and urged Brown to assist these countries to move quickly to resolve these issues, he said.

Several members of CARICOM to face adverse impact due account `gray ‘and some financial institutions have moved from those jurisdictions.

He stressed that the global crisis did not continually divide CARICOM member states, although some are in trouble because the decline of tourism flows, revenues from the financial sector and remittances from developed countries.

“This is a real problem, and while we have to deal with long-term structural problems – and the future debt service, the structure of our economy – we also have an immediate problem finding sufficient funds to meet the everyday needs of the country.”

“We have to find sources of bilateral funding. Given what is happening in the world and the difficulties faced by many countries, the only available access is through multilateral financial institutions and many countries have no other way but to turn to these institutions’ , he said.

“We have decided to act together and I think there is a greater sense of urgency”, the President added.
He said that CARICOM leaders at one time too complacent and feel that the current crisis was inevitable – if there is a global recession or not – because there are some who collect debt levels are unsustainable and use a larger part of the recurrent budget is debt service.

Total factor productivity in the economy also declined for several years, he said, adding that this alone is not sustainable.