British International Investment, (BII), formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), has announced its return to the Caribbean following an absence of several decades.
Styling itself as being “at the heart of the UK Government’s international financing offer to development countries,” BII says that it is located “at the heart of the UK Government’s international financing offer to emerging economies,” and that its interests include “building partnerships with British businesses that operate in developing and emerging economies and who share our aims. ”
Styling itself as “a key partner to emerging economies that are most vulnerable to climate emergency,” the company says that over the next five years at least 30 per cent of its new investment commitments will be focussed on climate finance as part of what it says is a broader mission to help “solve the biggest global development challenges by investing “flexible capital to support private sector growth and innovation.”
BII says that it invests “between £1.5 and £2 billion every year in green infrastructure, technology and other sectors,” that are most in need of that investment.
Boasting total assets of £7.5 billion, BII says that it is currently involved in partnerships with more than 1,000 businesses in emerging economies, its overarching mission being “to create more productive, sustainable and inclusive economies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
BII is the successor to the Colonial Development Corporation (CDC) established by the UK in 1948 and assigned the mission of supporting British colonies in the development of agriculture. The entity was renamed the Commonwealth Development Corporation in 1963 when much of the Caribbean was on the threshold of independence. As part of the CDC Act 1999 the entity was converted from a statutory corporation to a public limited company and renamed the CDC Group plc.
The CDC’s pursuit of its declared mandate has not been without controversy, which reportedly included an investigative piece in the magazine Private Eye concerning a June 2010 Index on Censorship report which included claims that CDC had “moved away from financing beneficial international development towards seeking large profits from schemes that enriched CDC’s managers while bringing little or no benefit to the poor.”
Earlier this month, in a promotional piece that declared its intention to “back private sector growth and scale climate finance in the region,” BII announced its re-entry into the Caribbean “with ambition to back private sector growth and scale climate finance in the region.” The promotional piece said that the “impact investor” had “marked its return to investing in the Caribbean at a business reception held at the British High Commission in Kingston” and hosted by the UK Minister of State, Jesse Norman; British High Commissioner to Jamaica, Judith Slater; and BII’s Managing Director Colin Buckley. The event, a report said, sought to celebrate “the DFI’s commitment to invest in sectors that can positively transform CARICOM economies.”
The report on the Jamaica reception says that BII, after a hiatus of 20 years, now “embarks on its strategy to invest up to £7.5 billion from 2022-2026, to help create productive, sustainable and inclusive economies across its markets, including the Caribbean.” The report adds that BII “will look to provide climate finance to help boost resilience and adaptation, particularly for Small Island Developing States who are at high risk to the complex impact of climate change.”
The report asserts that the BII, then the CDC, had been “a major investor in the Caribbean for around fifty years, from the early 1950s when it made an early investment in hydropower electricity generation across the region and later set up the Caribbean Utilities in 1969… As the region continues to evolve, BII will aim to build relationships with established players and leverage expertise from across our markets to make investments that support the CARICOM’s journey toward sustainable growth,” the CDC is quoted as saying.
