Premier Ewart Brown has attended a top level meeting in Washington D.C. to move plans for a Caribbean-wide catastrophe insurance project that will offer immediate support to islands in the region, including Bermuda, should they be hit by a hurricane or an earthquake.

Representatives from 18 Caribbean countries and a number of outside jurisdictions including the European Union, UK, France, Japan, and Canada gathered in the US capital to discuss with the World Bank the way forward for the catastrophe facility that is planned to be in operation by the start of the 2007 hurricane season this June.

Bermuda has already set aside $1.5 million to join the venture and pay for two years’ worth of premiums at $500,000 a year. Previously Finance Minister Paula Cox has spoken of her wish that the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) be headquartered in Bermuda. It is not clear if this will be possible. A World Bank official is reported to have stated the facility will be registered in the Cayman Islands.

The catastrophe facility will offer Caribbean islands and Bermuda the opportunity to pay yearly premiums between $200,000 and $4m in order to secure insurance coverage of up to $50m that would be immediately available should they suffer damage from either a hurricane or an earthquake.

The facility is a joint effort between the World Bank and the Caribbean Community and Common Market governments, with hoped for additional financing from a number of countries further afield.

Dr. Brown, attending the Washington gathering, said: “The Government of Bermuda has committed to our full participation in the facility and in out recent Budget statement set out that commitment as advance preparation for known risks and also a commitment to helping our sister countries within the region.”

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz has congratulated those countries involved in the project, the first of its kind in the world.

He said: “This could serve as a model for other small islands and small states around the world.” Participating countries in the new program will include the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Bermuda, Montserrat, St. Lucia, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, and the Cayman Islands.

Brown in Washington talks