Petrocaribe Will Be Strengthened – Paulwell

Minister of Science, Technology, Energy, and Mining, Hon Phillip Paulwell, says that the PetroCaribe Agreement with Venezuela will be strengthened to provide more benefits for Jamaicans.

He was addressing a special Jamaica House press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister’s Western Regional Office in Montego Bay on Friday (Sept. 4), ahead of the 10th Anniversary Commemorative Summit of the PetroCaribe Agreement this weekend.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller and President of Venezuela, His Excellency Nicolás Maduro, will co-chair the two-day meeting, which will get underway later today (Sept. 5), at the Montego Bay Convention Centre (MBCC).

Several Heads of Government and State, Energy Ministers and other Ministers of Government from the signatory countries will be in attendance.

Mr. Paulwell said that not only will Jamaica continue to benefit from the historic deal that was signed 10 years ago, but that the provisions will be broadened, coming out of the talks.

“We are expecting a deepening, not a lessoning of this agreement,” Mr. Paulwell said.

Among the areas that will be looked at is the trade compensation mechanism, which allows for exports of goods and services to Venezuela, in lieu of cash,  to offset the oil debt.

Since December 2013, Jamaica, through Caribbean Cement,   has been sending shipments of clinker to Venezuela, under the trade arrangement.

Mr. Paulwell said he expects that the arrangement will be discussed at the Summit meeting and possibly broadened.

Minster Paulwell told journalists that even though the price of oil has fallen on the world market, the PetroCaribe Agreement “is as important today as when it was signed 10 years ago.”

“For countries like Jamaica, that have been able to defer the full payment of oil transactions, it represents a significant savings in the outlay of foreign exchange on our energy purchases and it has also enabled us to use savings from our PetroCaribe Development Fund to do national projects,” he pointed out.

Responding to a question as to whether social programmes in Jamaica have benefitted from the savings derived from PetroCaribe, Mr. Paulwell stated that social development initiatives was a condition laid out by the late Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, under whose leadership the agreement was signed.

“From the very inception this was something Mr. Chavez insisted on,” Mr. Paulwell said.

“We have spent money on education and the upgrading of our schools. We have removed pit latrines and have replaced them with modern facilities. We have spent money on health care and also on infrastructural development…our roads and highways. We have managed the PetroCaribe Development Fund wisely and have helped our social programmes throughout the country,” he outlined.