In an interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA), he said, because it is so interconnected with regional and global economies, the implications for foreign aid to this country are significant.

Rohee said, in the past, it was generally believed that countries like ours should be the major beneficiaries of such assistance but the situation has changed following September 11.

He mentioned the recent conference in Japan where representatives of high-industrialised countries managed to raise a large sum of money for war ravaged Afghanistan.

“It would seem to me that the money should have been given to other developing countries but then they shifted the resources,” Rohee observed.

“This is one area where we will be affected, where development aid that was originally budgeted for countries like ours is going to Afghanistan,” he said.

Rohee recalled that a similar occurrence with the collapse of the Eastern European block, when those countries, specifically Yugoslavia had the benefit of a shift of resources previously earmarked for developing nations.

According to Rohee, the spinoff from the American disaster will result in increased cost for transportation, insurance and security.

“These are things you have to pay for, including scanners, not only for the national carriers but also for security at the airports and this results in increased costs for Third World countries,” he explained.

Rohee said Caribbean leaders have been examining the effects the terrorist attacks on their economies and measures to deal with the implications will be further discussed at an inter-regional meeting slated for this month.