Prime Minister Patrick Manning said yesterday some 100 CEPEP workers were likely to go to Grenada shortly to assist the hurricane-ravaged country, noting that Trinidad and Tobago would prefer that rebuilding programmes be implemented rather than have Grenadians migrate to this country.
By Richard LordHe made these remarks at a news conference at Crowne Plaza in Port of Spain last night at the end of a one-day emergency Caricom summit.
Stating that the migration of Grenadians to Trinidad and Tobago in the wake of Ivan's destruction was not "desirable", Manning added: "In the first instance, our preferred course of action is to initiate programmes in Grenada that would prevent that from taking place."
Caricom Secretary General Edwin Carrington announced that the meeting had agreed that a pool of budgetary resources be established to assist Grenada with its financial obligations to Caricom until the end of the year.
Other decisions, he said, included:
-Re-apportioning of Grenada's contribution to regional organisations to other Member States;
-Designing a plan to relocate Grenadian Advanced and Ordinary Level CXC students to other Caricom States to continue their education;
-Establishment of a Caricom-Grenada Unit to manage the reconstruction exercise;
-Approaching the international community for assistance to pool Caricom guarantees and to float a bond issue through the Caribbean Development Bank;
-Liasing by the Prime Ministers of Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia with the Grenadian Government and the official opposition about concerns on the island; and
-Supporting a call for a moratorium on Grenada's debt repayments.
St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonzalves contended that there was currently no government in Grenada.
"There is in Grenada, at the moment, no proper functioning government (and this is not a comment on the heroic efforts of PM Mitchell). There is no economy and civil society has been traumatised, and all of this was effected in two hours of (Hurricane) Ivan," he added.
Gonzalves said the region must be united in its efforts to rebuild Grenada.
In his opening statement at the summit, Manning said Ivan had provided the region with an opportunity to "pull together, perhaps to take courses of action that in the not too distant future can serve to strengthen and deepen the integration movement".
Grenada Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell and Jamaican leader P.J. Patterson did not attend the meeting. (see page 7)
Among the leaders who attended were Gonzalves, Barbados PM Owen Arthur, St Lucia PM Dr Kenny Anthony, Bahamas PM Perry Christi, Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo and President of Suriname Runaldo Venetiaan, who chaired the proceedings.
Manning extended a special welcome to Arthur , saying he planned to have a luncheon meeting with him and that they would both enjoy flying fish ''captured in Tobago waters and repatriated to Barbados''.
The Caricom neighbours are engaged in a dispute involving their territorial boundaries, and Manning's comment sparked laughter among the leaders.
Manning said: "The Grenada situation is potentially very damaging for Trinidad and Tobago."
