The Government of Trinidad and Tobago hosted the Third Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Port of Spain. The IDB’s Caribbean Governors are the finance and planning ministers of the institution’s Caribbean member states. A highlight of the conference was a luncheon address given by Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the Honorable Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
During the conference, the Caribbean Governors were briefed on the progress of the proposed restructuring of the IDB’s private sector window, which could increase development impact and mobilize additional resources from an expanded range of financial actors. In this process, the particular challenges associated with achieving a transformational impact in the Caribbean are a priority.
Both the Prime Minister and conference participants coincided in the high importance assigned to the high energy costs in the Caribbean that constrain living standards and growth. The IDB recently launched the Caribbean Energy Initiative, which seeks to create a regional energy market that creates sufficient critical mass to enable countries to take advantage of the reduction in the cost of natural gas and its increased supply.
The Caribbean Energy Initiative will be complemented by the IDB’s ongoing energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, which have proved to offer significant fiscal and foreign exchange benefits.
IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno noted that “The region is looking for a new paradigm. Both the larger, resource based economies and the smaller, service-based economies face the same challenge. New products and new trading partners will have to be cultivated. This calls for a willingness to embrace change. The Inter-American Development Bank is committed to support that process.”
The conference prepared the Caribbean Governors and Bank Management for the substantive deliberations on the future direction of the Bank that are anticipated at the institution’s Annual General Meeting to be held in Bahia, Brazil at the end of March.
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