Caribbean economies have been among the best performing in Latin America and the Caribbean, and this success has opened opportunities for Caribbean countries to invest in key priority areas.
This was among the discussions when the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) held its XIII Annual Consultation with the governors of IDB Caribbean member countries from February 2-3 in Nassau, Bahamas.
The annual consultations provide a platform for dialogue between the IDB and the region’s ministers on how to take advantage of these opportunities and how the bank can support them through financing, knowledge, and technical assistance.
In a statement issued yesterday, the IDB said the dialogue featured representatives from The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and T&T.
At the conclusion of the proceedings, IDB president Ilan Goldfajn said, “The IDB has been a steadfast partner for the Caribbean for over half a century. Our consultations with Caribbean governors ahead of our annual meetings in Chile provided an opportunity to discuss how our regional initiatives like ONE Caribbean can boost growth and resilience, and more generally, how our IDBImpact+ reforms can deliver more scale and impact for our membership as a whole.”
IDBImpact+ focuses the work of the IDB, IDB Invest and IDB Lab under the goal of greater development impact and scale for the countries and people of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Discussions also focused on the achievements of ONE Caribbean, a regional initiative launched in 2024 to address climate resilience, citizen security, productivity and growth, and food security.
The statement said these four priorities were identified by Caribbean countries, through a process of dialogue with the IDB, as common challenges facing the region.
ONE Caribbean has launched six early initiatives, including ONE Safe Caribbean, which aims to take on cross-border organised crime and a programme to provide cybersecurity assistance to governments.
