Staff Reporter

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) President Luis Moreno has commended Jamaica for its efforts in averting a fallout in the productive sector in the wake of the global financial meltdown.

Moreno, who arrived here yesterday for a two-day visit, was met at the Norman Manley International Airport by a delegation headed by Audley Shaw, the finance and public service minister.

"This is a time of tremendous turmoil, as we all know, and I think Jamaica did the right thing in thinking earlier on to begin a very intense dialogue with us," Moreno told The Gleaner yesterday.

First from the Caribbean

"We are a complex institution because we have a very narrow focus on development but, in this extraordinary time, we have understood that we have to do more to support countries and Jamaica is the first country in the Caribbean to come forward to the bank to say we need to think of these tough times and anticipate any additional volatility in the market."

Moreno and the Government are to sign, today, three contracts valued at US$329m. Of that total, US$314m is new loan funding, US$15m is a reallocation from an existing loan of US$40m, which was made to the National Water Commission for the Kingston Water and Sanitation Project.

With respect to the contract of US$300m for the Liquidity Programme for Growth Sustainability, the loan facility represents part of Government's response to avert serious fallout in the productive sector as a result of the global financial crisis.

The loan is aimed at providing increased liquidity to the financial sector in order to maintain credit flows, which have been negatively impacted by the global financial crisis. Moreno said the plan was to disburse the loan over the next two to three weeks.

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com