Caribbean Development Fund to help implement single market and economy

Sunday, November 22, 2009 12:28 AM

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Friday, July 03, 2009

Chief executive officer (CEO) of the Caribbean Development Fund (CDF), Ambassador Lorne McDonnough, says the CDF is expected to cushion any shocks faced by smaller and more vulnerable economies and sectors within the Caribbean Community (Caricom), with the establishment of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME).

His comments came following a meeting on Monday with legal counsel of CDF, Arden Warne, to brief Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo on the operations of the fund.

Jagdeo will be assuming the chairmanship of Caricom later this month.

After the meeting, McDonnough explained that contrary to media reports the CDF is not ready to begin the implementation of projects.

"We spent this month (June) conducting needs assessment around the Caribbean. while the Fund can lead on a few projects, the onus will be on parties from the various Caricom countries to put forward requests for funding," McDonnough explained.

He intimated that the CDF will begin accepting these requests from the end of July.

McDonnough assumed his post on November 1, 2008 at the CDF Headquarters in Bridgetown, Barbados, and is responsible for the overall administration, co-ordination of activities and programmes of the fund.

McDonnough demitted office as Under-Secretary for Trade in the Jamaican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, where he was the senior official responsible for Jamaica's trade negotiations.

The new CEO has had a distinguished career in the Jamaican Foreign Service, serving in Caricom and this hemisphere in a number of capacities over the past 23 years. He was Jamaica's High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago and the Eastern Caribbean, as well as Ambassador to Suriname, and Consul General to the Netherlands Antilles, and Permanent Representative to the Association of Caribbean States (ACS).

Prior to his service as Jamaica's envoy in the Eastern Caribbean, McDonnough was the Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission in the Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) and later the first director of the OAS Tourism Unit.