Obama's promise of debt relief a $29b opportunity for Jamaica

[AMilliONAIRE]

Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, is promising 100 per cent debt relief for the Caribbean if he becomes the next leader of the United States.

That would translate for Jamaica into a $29 billion write-off in central government debt to the US, a small portion of the near $500 billion of foreign debt the island is carrying, Jamaica's finance ministry figures show.

Policy to be pursued

While Obama himself did not reveal that plan for the region, his foreign policy adviser, Dan Restrepo, told the Government and tourism officials attending the Caribbean Tourism Organisation conference here that this is one of the policies to be pursued by Obama if elected to office.

"As you all well know, the poorest countries in the world, including some in the Caribbean, suffer under the weight of enormous external debt. Barack Obama wants to see a 100 per cent debt cancellation for the world's heavily indebted poor countries, including all such countries in the Caribbean," he said.

Jamaica's debt

The USAID is a a major conduit of US financing to overseas countries and groups.

Jamaica's breakout of its US debt shows that it owes the agency $5.6 billion.

The country is more heavily indebted to the US Department of Agriculture which it owes $7.7 billion and the Federal Financing Bank, which holds $14.6 billion of the country's US debt.

Restrepo also spoke about Obama's intention to facilitate trade between the US and Cuba, saying that the Democrat would personally lead direct diplomacy with Cuban officials.

He said the presidential hopeful also understood the unique security challenges of the Caribbean and that the issue of trans-national crime was of great importance to the region.

He has, therefore, promised to restore funding for drug control programmes that were cut by the George W. Bush administration and to put an end to the illegal gun trade in the south.