New Caribbean head to be named as IDB touts record regional investments

The Inter-American Development Bank, based in Washington, DC, in the United States, is to announce in a week or two who will be named general manager of its Caribbean division, which is run out of Jamaica, when the position formerly held by Therese Turner-Jones becomes vacant on April 1.

Turner-Jones, who was sent on administrative leave in December, will not have her contract renewed when it expires at the end of this month.

Bank President Mauricio Claver-Carone told the Financial Gleaner this week that a decision has been made on a permanent appointment to the post, in which IDB senior staffer Carmen Maria Madriz of Costa Rica has been acting since mid-December 2021. The IDB head did not say if Madriz, who was previously the IDB’s general manager for the so-called southern cone countries of South America, and before that an adviser to the World Bank Group for Central America, and a Costa Rican foreign service officer and diplomat, will be confirmed in the position.

The impending appointment coincides with what Claver-Carone said is record high levels of investment in the region by the institution that finances development projects in the countries of the Caribbean as well as South and Central America.

Commitments for the region this year are at US$1.3 billion, the IDB president said, tripling the US$435 million which the institution committed to the region in 2021. The IDB president did not provide a breakdown of the investment envelope, but noted that it follows on the heels of an ongoing IDB regional investment portfolio of $2.5 billion, which is said to be financing 68 projects.

“We have also already named a senior adviser in the office of the presidency (in Washington, DC) – Anton Edmunds, who is the former St Lucian ambassador the US, who is working very closely to ensure that this ‘year of the Caribbean’ is executed across our agency along with our vice-president for countries to ensure the priorities of the Caribbean. It is the only subregion that has an adviser in the president’s office,” Claver-Carone said, responding to Financial Gleaner questions during an online briefing with Caribbean journalists on Monday.

DISCUSSIONS

The IDB head also stopped short of disclosing the 2022 financing envelope for Jamaica, noting that the institution’s new Jamaica country strategy, that outlines the proposed projects and funding amounts for the next five years, will be presented to the board of the IDB soon.

Claver-Carone visited Jamaica in early December 2021 for discussions with government, private sector and civil society leaders in what was billed as consultations towards determining the next country strategy and the complexion of the bank’s future engagement with the country.

During the December visit and in a subsequent interview with the Financial Gleaner, Claver-Carone made known he’s upset with what he described as the reliance of previous IDB country programmes for Jamaica on loans, with insufficient emphasis on other funding options such as public private partnerships and equity financing through IDB Invest, the organisation’s private sector arm.

In Monday’s briefing, the IDB president said areas of project emphasis for the Caribbean this year included tourism; oil and gas, particularly for Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago; agriculture; global services; nearshoring; ecotourism; and the economic empowerment of women.

Noting that the region has room for new investments and expansion in traditional and new areas of economic activities, even as it confronted continuing inflationary pressures from geopolitical developments and the resulting surging global oil prices, Claver-Carone said the situation presented both exciting opportunities and formidable challenges for the region.

“As I see stories about where people are focused on the geopolitical scale in regard to oil and gas, all eyes of the world, frankly, should be on Guyana, which is positioning itself to be the largest per capita producer of oil and gas in the world. That’s a tremendous opportunity and it comes with a tremendous amount of responsibility,” the IDB president pointed out.

”On the flip side, rising oil and gas prices can lead to inflation and challenges in a lot of Caribbean countries like The Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica. Add to that, we see that debt to GDP ratios have risen in the Caribbean. What we need and what we are focused on, and why we are making this the ‘year of the Caribbean’, is because we need to partner to have robust economic growth so that we can improve that ratio by increasing GDP,” he said.

POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Improvements in tourism sector performance has been identified by the IDB as a positive development for the region.

“By the third quarter of 2021, tourism to the Caribbean has reached almost 80 per cent of its 2019 levels. Good news. Now we have to build on that,” according to Claver-Carone.

He added that in the ongoing debate about the role of tourism in Caribbean development over the long term, the bank is squarely on the side of the sector as a vital part of the region’s long-term economic outlook.

“My administration clearly sees tourism as important to the countries of the Caribbean in their development process, in serving underserved communities, and in regard to jobs growth. We are doubling down and extending an entire business line on tourism and tourism development, because that is key to a lot of the countries. Not just of the Caribbean, but also Central America, but especially to the Caribbean, where it is a greater portion of GDP,” the IDB president said.

huntley.medley@gleanerjm.com