BY STACEY DAVIDSON
Guyana Chronicle
May 12, 2001

"...the signing of this agreement to establish CARTAC, (I) do feel, can become a defining moment in changing on a sustained basis the relationship between the Caribbean region and international financial and donor communities." - Prime Minister Owen Arthur

AN AGREEMENT for the establishment of the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) was signed this week at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat by representatives of CARICOM and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Barbados Prime Minister, Mr. Owen Arthur who is also Chairman of the CARICOM Conference of Heads of Government, signed the agreement for the centre, which will be located in Barbados.

The facility is designed to upgrade the quality of the delivery of technical assistance to the countries of the region.

A similar institution has been set up in the Pacific and is very successful and it is anticipated that it will also prosper in the Caribbean.

Arthur welcomed the initiative and predicted that it will be of tremendous value to CARICOM.

"We have developed the habit of bemoaning the limited, negative and sometimes the absence of the presence of a beneficial nature on the part of many of the multilateral financial institutions and many of the developmental institutions.

"... the signing of this agreement to establish CARTAC, (I) do feel, can become a defining moment in changing on a sustained basis the relationship between the Caribbean region and international financial and donor communities."

According to Arthur, this institution has been long anticipated and it comes at a time when the Caribbean is involved in a transition that heightens the need for technical assistance as well as the need for it to redefine its relationship with international, financial and trading communities.

He said meetings have been held with Caribbean groups of cooperation in economic development and it is felt that there is need for Caribbean Heads of Government to put in place mechanisms that can better foster donor coordination to make the grant of technical assistance play a more beneficial role in Caribbean development.

"The agreement...holds the promise of the neighbourliness to rationalise and to coordinate technical assistance, and to define a better relationship with the international lending and donor communities for the whole purpose of CARICOM development."

"We, ourselves, have to be very concerned about the need on our own part for capacity building in relation to the organs of our own regional integration movement", he advised.

Arthur made reference to the virtual completion of a framework for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, which "puts on us the duty to put in place an institutional arrangement that can exercise the appropriate oversight of the satisfactory implementation of the Single Market and Economy".

He encouraged CARICOM Heads of Government to approve the proposals endorsed by the CARICOM Bureau regarding the structure of such a unit (Single Market and Economy).

"... and it is my hope that when one sees (the)Single Market and Economy come into existence that the closest possible working relationship will be established with that unit and this new institution (CARTAC)", he stated.

Arthur pledged that everything would be done to ensure a productive environment exists and the centre discharges its function in a manner that would be favourable to the CARICOM region.

CARICOM Secretary General, Mr. Edwin Carrington, in brief remarks, stated that a number of member states are in need of the kind of assistance which CARTAC is being designed to produce.

"In terms of the international situation (with) our Single Market and Economy, the relationship and the impact these are going to have on our fiscal and financial arrangements require us to look very carefully at our ability to provide technical assistance, which we would need to surmount the difficulties we are going to encounter", he declared.

UNDP resident representative, Mr. Richard Olver, who spoke on behalf of the other donor agencies, which include the International Monetary Fund, Canadian International Development Agency and the European Union, pointed out that because of the small size of some Caribbean countries, the agencies found it difficult to meet all individual requests for technical assistance and to assure that money spent provides lasting benefits.

"The project serves to facilitate the pooling of donor resources. This project will assure that technical assistance in the financial services area is provided in a comprehensive, coordinated and rational way that responds to needs of the CARICOM countries, not the needs of donors", he stated.

Olver indicated that UNDP is proud to be providing administrative support to the programme, which, he said, should complement not duplicate communication channels.

A variety of services will be made available through the programme - budget management, tax administration and policy, financial sectorship provision and regulations and economic and social statistics.

He said UNDP would also play a major role in training and promoting technical cooperation and knowledge transfer among the participating countries.