Vaz Confident IMF Issues will be Resolved

KINGSTON — Minister with responsibility for Information, Telecommunications and Special Projects, Hon. Daryl Vaz, says he is confident that the issues surrounding the outstanding International Monetary Fund (IMF) quarterly review, will be resolved by year end.

He noted that the matters which the Government is discussing at the highest level with the Fund, include tax reform, pension reform, the sale of Clarendon Alumina Partners (CAP), and a formula which is to be arrived at for future public sector wage settlements.

Mr. Vaz was speaking at today's (September  14) post-Cabinet press briefing, at Jamaica House.

"There are issues, nobody is denying that…the signals coming from the Prime Minister and Minister  (Audley) Shaw, based on meetings at the highest level, is that everything has been ventilated and it's a matter of finding amicable solutions and resolutions to these problems. I expect that these will be behind us, and that the IMF programme will continue, before the end of this year," he said.

Mr. Vaz noted that at the last sitting of the House of Representatives, during the tabling of the Supplementary Estimates for this fiscal year, both Prime Minister, the Hon. Bruce Golding, and Finance Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw had, "brought tremendous clarity, and reaffirmed their confidence in the issues being favourably resolved."

By Alphea Saunders,
JIS Reporter & Editor