From Barbados Advocate

The Caribbean Public/Private Partner-ships (PPPs) for Sustainable Growth forum has gotten underway at the Hilton Barbados.

Delivering remarks at the opening, Country representative of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Joel Branski pointed out that the start of the crisis in 2008 profoundly changed the context of risk and opportunity in investment policy in both the private and public sectors.

Noting that this has led to a concentration of scarce public money in measures aimed at strengthening the social safety net and maintaining existing jobs in the Caribbean, he illustrated that public capital contributions were diverted from construction of new infrastructure.

According to him, the existing infra-structure gap has been aggravated with a clear impact on economic growth, job creation and social cohesion, and stressed therefore the importance of the PPP model.

“In this context, the region is giving greater consideration to the Public-Private Partnership – PPP -model. In this meeting, we will be reflecting on the opportunities for and the challenges to the use of this model, where the private sector is engaged to provide some of the services or infrastructure that are the responsibility of the Government, with shared objectives and shared potential risks and rewards,” he added.

He disclosed that the idea for the event had come up last year during a series of high-level engagements between governments and the IDB, while discussions with the World Bank came on board soon after.

The forum is the first of its kind in the Caribbean and is set to focus on over 65 public sector agencies and include key multilateral institutions. Participants are expected to share knowledge on using PPPs to develop sustainable and productive infrastructure and basic services in the Caribbean, while at the same time protecting these assets against climate risk, reducing carbon footprints and generating new business opportunities related to climate change

PHOTO:

IDB Vice President Country Operations Roberto Vellutini listens as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office (Energy and Telecommunications, Immigration, Invest Barbados) Senator Darcy Boyce makes a point.

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