– CDB president
— bank’s disbursements rose eight per cent in 2019

By Rabindra Rooplall in Bridgetown Barbados

GUYANA should be dominating regional growth this year as it has become an oil producing nation and its economy is expected to grow by 76 per cent.

This is according to President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Dr Warren Smith, during remarks, on Tuesday, at the bank’s Annual News Conference in Wildey, Barbados.
“Guyana’s development can have major positive impacts, not only on the government and people of Guyana but also on our region, broadly defined, and hopefully the Caribbean Development Bank. Guyana has been a founding member of the institution. Guyana, even through the most difficult times, continued to meet its obligation to this institution,” Dr Smith noted.

He continued: “We believe that Guyana can play a leading role given their endowment of land and their new endowment of potential wealth from this oil bounty that they have, so we are certainly going to be working closely with the government and people of Guyana and we want to be a partner in development with Guyana, not only for their country but also for the region.”

The CDB President said Guyana’s land is also an attractive asset, especially for agriculture, along with the revenues that the country will receive from the oil industry.
He noted that the CDB is projecting regional economic growth to increase to 4.2 per cent in 2020 from one per cent in 2019, powered largely by stratospheric growth in Guyana where oil production commenced.

UNEVEN
However, the CDB president said that this growth will be uneven, and urged the borrowing member countries (BMCs) of the bank to pursue policy reforms conducive to sustainable rates of growth.

“Economic growth will remain lopsided and below the sustainable rates needed for long-term resilience. BMCs like Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica and St. Kitts and Nevis must stay on course with their home grown socio-economic reform programmes,” Dr Smith said.
“Others should join the bandwagon and commence, with alacrity, implementation of their own adjustment programmes,” he urged.

The bank’s president reported on the progress that several BMCs implementing economic adjustment programmes, noting improved fiscal performance and debt ratios in several states in 2019.

He pointed to Barbados’ progress in bringing its debt ratio down from 127 per cent of GDP in 2018 to under 120 per cent last year.
Dr Smith confirmed that the bank was determined to assist the BMCs to reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

He cited the work which CDB did in 2019 to assist its BMCS in meeting these goals through modernising infrastructure and economic reform.
The CDB head noted that even as the bank focused on helping its BMCs to improve and modernise, CDB is also striving to “become better equipped to partner with BMCs” through its ongoing internal transformation programme which started in 2019.

DEEPENING CUSTOMER RELATIONS
“Some immediate tasks call for deepening our customer relationships and becoming more responsive to BMCs’ needs; supporting capacity and institution building; and ramping up the pace of disbursements so that the projects can deliver, even faster, the promised development impacts,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Director of the Projects Department, Daniel Best, said the CDB has prioritised improving disbursements so its BMCs can press forward with implementing critical projects and programmes funded by the bank.

Adding that the CDB’s disbursements rose eight per cent in 2019, Best disclosed the bank disbursed US$305 million in 2019.

Best emphasised the work the bank has done to ensure approved project funding can be accessed efficiently.

“Development does not happen without implementation; and the eight per cent increase in disbursements over 2018, is again the result of our renewed emphasis on supervision and providing much-needed technical support to our BMCs to implement projects approved,” he stated.

Several major projects funded by the bank were completed or under implementation in 2019.

On the approvals front, he said 2019 saw the bank giving the green light for several major projects, including US$29.8M to Barbados to rehabilitate its South Coast sewage system and US$6.8M to Belize to connect the island of Caye Caulker to the mainland electric grid.
The bank also approved a US$10 million line of credit mainly for small business financing in Trinidad and Tobago. A US$10 million TVET project, along with a US$7.5 million renewable energy project is also planned for Haiti.

Additionally, the director of the projects said the CDB has also provided technical assistance to Guyana for a consultant to provide ideas on renewable energy strategies.
He said although the country is now supplying the fossil fuel industry, systems are being sought to incorporate renewable energy into the matrix.