Press Release No. 10/174

Press Release: IMF Opening Resident Representative Offices in the Caribbean

April 30, 2010

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is opening two new resident representative offices, in Jamaica and in Antigua and Barbuda, the latter to cover IMF member countries in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union. The establishment of these offices will further deepen the IMF’s dialogue with the country’s authorities and other important regional stakeholders, including trade unions, the private sector, academics, and non-governmental organizations. The IMF already has a Resident Representative office in Haiti.

Mr. Gene Leon has been named to serve as the IMF’s Senior Resident Representative in Jamaica, while Mr. Wendell Samuel will head the newly-created Regional Representative Office for the Eastern Caribbean, based in Antigua and Barbuda.

A presence in the Caribbean will help the IMF to better understand local circumstances and constraints and foster the already close and productive dialogue with policymakers in the region. “The resident representatives will serve as an on-the-ground resource on technical and policy matters that the authorities can tap as they implement their economic programs,” said Mr. Nicolas Eyzaguirre, Director of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department. “I am confident that their presence will help the IMF to develop closer ties to the people in the region and help both sides to improve their understanding of each other,” Mr. Eyzaguirre added.

Both new resident representatives have extensive experience in the Caribbean. Mr. Leon, a national of St. Lucia, has been in the IMF for more than 13 years, most recently in the Middle East and Central Asia Department. Key assignments have included developing the first Fund program for Iraq and leading teams working on the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates). Mr. Leon was the head of research at Central Bank of Barbados, as well as an associate professor at the State University of New York. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom.

Mr. Samuel, a national of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has been working in the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department since 2001, where—among others—he led both the Dominica and Antigua & Barbuda teams. Prior to joining the IMF, he was the head of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank’s Research Department in St. Kitts, and a lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies. He holds a PhD in economics from New York University.