Majority of EU grant to pay down debt
Published:Wednesday | January 26, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Jamaica on Tuesday received a grant of €28.87 million (J$3.37b) from the European Union (EU) for budgetary support, funds that Finance Minister Audley Shaw said will help to pay down the country's debt, finance growth programmes, and bolster security sector reform.
The agreement was signed Tuesday at Jamaica House, seat of the prime minister.
"This is yet another drawdown of the much needed funds that have come our way especially since the Government negotiated with the European Union the debt reduction and growth enhancement programme, which is a unique programme in the sense that it is based on budgetary support rather than project-specific support," Shaw said.
The majority of the grant, €21.55m will be used to reduce the public debt, which at December stood at J$1.5 trillion.
Tuesday's allocation brings the total grants from the EU for the 2010/11 budget year to €66.5m (J$7.4b).
Head of Delegation of the European Commission Ambassador Marco Mazzocchi Alemanni said Jamaica qualifies for support having successfully met key security targets such as: improved and expanded training facilities for the Jamaica Constabulary Force; improved anti-corruption and disciplinary procedures for the police and the establishment of the Independent Commission for Investigations against agents of the state.
And, relative to the debt, he said the country has shown improvements in the administration of public finances and more transparent and effective public-procurement rules.
"Much more has been achieved cumulatively to date and further progress is envisioned this year, all of this proves that the budget-support instrument can be effective and that value for money can be obtained if the programmes are set up in an intelligent manner," the ambassador said.
Ambassador Mazzocchi Alemanni said the EU in 2010 disbursed more funds to Jamaica than any other country in the Americas, with the exception of Haiti.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding said the signing agreement represented more than just the taking of grants made available by the Europeans but involved a celebration of the vital partnership that exists between Jamaica and the EU.
He said the country was committed to its path of economic reforms and trying to get the macroeconomic framework right.
"Committed as we are to that, we are left without significant space to do some of the things that have to be done," Golding said.
"We are determined to continually reduce our fiscal deficit and to achieve fiscal balance in the next four to five years," he said, adding that his administration would be working with the private sector to reach its goals.