Caricom finance ministers at the Fourteenth Meeting of Council of Finance and Planning (COFAP) again pledged to support rebuilding efforts in Haiti even as Secretary-General Edwin Carrington urged the region to support Chile in the wake of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake on February 27.

In his address at the opening of the meeting on Monday, Carrington urged the “greatest possible support to Haiti,” as it struggles to rebuild before the start of the rainy season even as he pointed out that the region “cannot fail to take cognizance of the near similar situation which has befallen Chile.” A press release from Caricom said the earthquake devastated central and southern parts of the Latin American country.

The Secretary-General said that at the just concluded Summit of Nations of Latin America and the Caribbean in Cancun, Mexico, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet had “pledged her strongest possible support to Haiti” and “today, her country is itself similarly in dire need. We cannot fail to assist our neighbour to the best of our ability at this time.”