BRIDGETOWN -- The emerging Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) looms large in the successful borrowing by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to float some US$150M on the international monetary market.
As a consequence of this significant achievement, announced last evening, the region's premier multilateral financial institution is now in a position to make available some US$96M in loans to the governments of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to help finance the operations of the CCJ.
Financing of the CCJ is part of a US$100M loan package that was approved by the CDB Board of Directors at a specially convened meeting to make available to the 11 countries of CARICOM to be initially involved in membership of the CCJ.
The CCJ is scheduled to be ceremonially inaugurated on November 6 in Port-of-Spain where it is to have its operational headquarters and with the Trinidadian jurist and retired Chief Justice, Michael de laBastide as its first President.
Details of the financial sources from which the CDB was successful in borrowing the US$150M were not available last evening from the bank which had earlier disclosed that the money it has secured for on-lending carries a 10-year repayment period and was "heavily oversubscribed" when closed to investors last Friday.
President of the CDB, Dr. Compton Bourne, is due back in Barbados from an overseas business visit tomorrow.
The CDB, which was granted a triple-A rating by international agencies -- Moody's Investors Services and Standard and Poor's in May to coincide with is 34th annual Board of Governors meeting in Tobago, is viewed by the governments of CARICOM as a most valued partner in the financing of the region's social and economic development.
In a statement last evening the CDB said that with its success in borrowing the US$150M on the international monetary market, it was now awaiting "the expeditious completion of loan preconditions" by member governments so that disbursements of the funds can be made to the "CCJ Trust Fund".
A specially appointed Board of Trustees has been charged with the responsibility of managing and investing the resources of the Trust Fund.
The CCJ is to have original jurisdiction in dealing with disputes arising from interpretation of the CARICOM Treaty and is integrally related to the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).
Additionally, it is to eventually be the final appellate court for member states which currently have access to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England.