by RICKEY SINGH in Georgetown

CARICOM HEADS OF GOVERNMENT have appointed a special task force to deal with "high-level" guests who are invited to their meetings.

The task force is to be headed by Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo, along with the prime ministers of Barbados (David Thompson), Jamaica (Bruce Golding), St Vincent and the Grenadines (Ralph Gonsalves), and Trinidad and Tobago (Patrick Manning).

The special task force will, for example, meet with top officials from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, who were invited to the summit to discuss with heads their proposed strategy for accessing resources from these leading financial institutions.

Official statement coming

An official statement on this new development was expected to be included in the communique to be released last night on the deliberations and decisions of the summit.

The task force is to benefit from technical inputs from regional experts and officials, and the top officials of the CARICOM and OECS Secretariats.

In the past, these international institutions have sent "low level" officials to have an "exchange of views" with nominees from CARICOM.

This new initiative will see heads meeting directly with top officials from the lending institutions.

For example, a meeting was scheduled yesterday with the president of the Inter-American Development Bank.

The invitation for an "exchange of views" was made against the backdrop of new funds recently allocated by the G-20 nations for improved funding to poor and developing nations, to help combat the consequences of the global economic crisis, and CARICOM's stratergy to "arrest further economic decline".