The recently installed Joe Biden administration in Washington is being pushed to provide a multi-million dollar funding initiative to assist Barbados and the various other Caribbean territories with their post-COVID economic revival pursuits.
The matter of the US making available to the region, financial assistance to the tune of Bds.$200 million to help kickstart Barbados and some of the other territories currently afflicted by their respective COVID-19-related economic maladies was mooted last week by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Invest Caribbean, Guyanese-born Dr Felicia Persaud, during a virtual discussion in the course of her participation in a forum on the strengthening of US-Caribbean trade and investment relations under the Biden administration. The forum was sponsored by the Shridath Ramphal Centre.
Dr Persaud itemised the funding among several ‘demands’ being made of the new US administration, which, she asserted, are necessary for rebuilding Caribbean economies hit hard by COVID-19.
The Invest Caribbean CEO believes that the primary challenge to trade and investment in the Caribbean remains access to capital. She said that banks in the US had already indicated that they were not disposed to lending to countries in the region. “So we are having to find private lenders and to go further afield globally for lenders including China, for our projects,” she is quoted as saying. Dr Persaud wants the Bds$200 million Caribbean Development Fund to be used in the post-pandemic era to create jobs, grow the economies, and to invest in business projects across economic sectors.
Persaud, who contends that successive US administrations have ignored the Caribbean, treating the region as though it were a step-child, wants the fund to be managed by a private hedge fund working with investment companies to make direct disbursements to those who require it, rather than by any regional state institution.
The Guyanese-born journalist and businesswoman also wants the Biden administration to use what she reportedly describes as his “Caribbean roots,” in the form of Vice President Kamala Harris to launch the fund. Additionally, she wants the new US administration to co-host a conference on the future of the Caribbean and to foster partnerships between US and Caribbean companies in order to accelerate the increased entry of products from the region onto the US market;
While the US administration includes a post titled Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Dr Persaud favours the creation of a separate position designated Assistant Secretary of State for the Caribbean. She also wants Washington’s Caribbean Ambassadors to be chosen from amongst people who are knowledgeable about the region.
The Invest Caribbean CEO is also recommending that the region move to create “our own Silicon Valley with technical businesses, incubators, education and training, and easy access to funding.” She lamented that while many tech start-ups are growing across the region, they lack the access to capital.
