Technical Team to look at Projects for Financing under Petrocaribe Agreement

The areas of national development identified by the Prime Minister will include energy projects, infrastructure projects, those relating to the social sector, and agricultural projects. In relation to the agricultural projects, the team has been instructed to consider new technologies and to set up food processing facilities to ensure the speedy and efficient distribution of food production.

Mr. Golding gave the charge when he met over the weekend with Ministers and representatives of the Ministries of Energy, Finance, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, the PetroCaribe Development Fund, the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica and the Development Bank of Jamaica.

The technical team to be established will include representatives from the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Finance, the Planning Institute of Jamaica, and the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica.

Mr. Golding also issued directives as to how the new lending arrangements under the PetroCaribe Agreement, are to be handled. The team will also be looking at how to make repayments to the Venezuelans in terms of the exports of goods and services.

Under the PetroCaribe agreement of 2005, the Governments of Jamaica and Venezuela agreed to convert a portion of each payment by Petrojam Limited for crude oil and petroleum products, into a long-term concessionary loan. As part of the agreement a special vehicle, the PetroCaribe Development Fund was created to manage the proceeds from the agreement.

The PetroCaribe Development Fund was mandated to receive loan proceeds which accrue to Jamaica, provide loan financing for approved projects, receive loan repayments from borrowers and to meet the debt servicing obligations to Venezuela when they are due.

The terms of reference of the technical team will be developed and submitted to the Prime Minister within the next three weeks following which he will give a formal charge for implementation.