Dominica seeks economic pain relief

by Paul Charles

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

ROSEAU, Dominica: Dominica's Prime Minister Pierre Charles, who is fresh from a medical doctor-ordered ''rest and relaxation leave'', is leading a four-member team to a crucial international financial meeting which takes in Barbados on Wednesday. 

Accompanied by Coordinator of the Economic Stabilisation and Adjustment Programme Swinburne Lestrade and two economists in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, the Dominican leader is on a mission to ease the island's suffering from its economic pains, that is in the form of an US$290 million external debt.

Charles will tell the creditors and donors, with the help of the The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, that Dominica needs debt restructuring and their cooperation in its economic recovery, Press Secretary Sean Douglas told Caribbean Net News on Tuesday. 

Roseau is banking on the IMF's latest assessment that gave the ruling administration a ''pat on the back'' for its performance in the August to September 2003 review period.

Douglas added that Dominica would also follow-up on earlier talks it had with the donor community for two debt specialists to be attached to the island's finance ministry.

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