Jamaica yesterday made a formal appeal for international aid to help its rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan last weekend.

“The prompt response of the international community will be deeply appreciated in order to continue the emergency relief effort and to enable an expeditious reconstruction and rehabilitation process,” Prime Minister P J Patterson said in statement delivered to foreign governments and international organisations via their missions in Kingston.

Jamaican diplomats abroad were also to deliver the appeal to government in their respective capitals.

Some governments have already made initial offers of assistance to help with immediate relief, but the government’s formal appeal for broader help comes as the administration is attempting to jump-start the rehabilitation process with the launch of a relief fund and the establishment of an office to spearhead the reconstruction.

It also coincides with yesterday’s special summit, in Port of Spain, of Caribbean Community leaders – at which Patterson was represented by finance minister Omar Davies – to fashion a regional response to the devastation suffered by Jamaica and Grenada from the storm.

In Grenada, Ivan, which struck 10 days ago, left 23 persons dead and destroyed or damaged 90 per cent of the buildings. The death toll in Jamaica was at least 17 and the storm caused widespread damage to property.

Both countries suffered significant damage to infrastructure, agriculture and their tourist industries.

Neither country has a final assessment of the cost of the damage, but it is expected to run into billions of dollars – a message Minister Davies is likely to take to upcoming meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, where he will speak on behalf of Caricom countries.

At an initial pledging meeting on Tuesday Jamaican firms, or companies operating here, pledged nearly half-a-billion Jamaican dollars to the relief effort.

However, Danville Walker, who was named on Monday to head the Office of National Reconstruction (ONR) told the Observer he hoped that this fund would swell to about $3 billion with contributions from other firms and Jamaicans living abroad.

This would be in addition to whatever the government itself will allocate to the relief effort, which is likely to be constrained because of the administration’s fiscal problems.

Having run a deficit of nearly seven per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the 2002/2003 fiscal year and 5.6 last year, the government had pledged to hold the deficit to no more than four per cent of GDP in the current 2004/2005 fiscal year. It projected to close the gap in the next fiscal year.

But with debt servicing gobbling up nearly 70 per cent of the government’s budget and public sector wages most of the rest, there would have been little room for the administration to maneouvre, if it is to keep its borrowing tight and its interest costs under control, analysts said last night.

A strong inflow of reconstruction aid, they said, would allow a fast-tracking of the rebuilding programme while keeping the economic targets largely in place.

With Jamaica’s international appeal out, Patterson yesterday primed Kingston-based diplomats at a briefing at Jamaica House, showing them video footage, some shot from Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) helicopters, of the damage done to homes and infrastructure.

“The category four hurricane with winds of. 150mph has resulted in significant flooding, landslides and infrastructural damage, leading to the dislocation of hundreds of persons and has been the cause of 17 verifiable fatalities to date,” Patterson said in his appeal.

He asked for urgent contributions “in cash and kind” for the immediate relief effort and to prevent diseases, but also pointed to the long-term reconstruction and rehabilitation programme, to be coordinated by the ONR, working with key government ministries.

“In this context, the damage and needs assessment exercise currently under way will be critical and is expected to be completed by the end of this week,” the prime minister said.