Off the wire
• Singapore stocks close 0.77 pct lower  • Church in Israel badly damaged in suspected arson by Jewish zealots  • Feature: I never have and never will sing Japan's national anthem, says prominent university professor  • Philippine, U.S. troops to hold naval drill  • China banks' forex settlement sees surplus in May  • Foreign exchange rates in Singapore  • Feature: Afghan president appeals for peace on eve of Ramadan  • 1st Ld: NPC says decision on HK universal suffrage to stand despite veto  • Cambodia skeptical about news of missing Malaysian oil tanker spotted in its sea  • Africa needs more blood products: WHO official  
You are here: 　 Home

Caribbean gathering focuses on joint approach to boost growth

Xinhua, June 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Over 200 officials, business leaders, regional and international stakeholders have gathered in St. Lucia for a two-day forum to discuss ways of boosting growth in the Caribbean.

The 3rd Caribbean Growth Forum, which ended on Wednesday, was organized by the World Bank (WB) in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank, among other financial institutions.

It aimed to offer the Caribbean countries an opportunity to learn from others' experience, to propose new approaches to ignite growth, and to promote innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the region, according to the organizer.

St. Lucia's Prime Minister Kenny Anthony, addressing the opening ceremony, described the economic development of the Caribbean as "anemic," pointing to the average growth of just 1.1 percent from 2008 to 2013.

Anthony urged his regional counterparts to make joint efforts to reach consensus and find solutions at the regional level.

"These economies may be broken, but I believe we can pick up the pieces. I believe that our historical task is to conceptualize, shape and define an economic model that meets the times and our needs," he said.

The prime minister's comment was echoed by Jorge Familiar, vice president of the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean, who stressed that in spite of great diversity, the Caribbean countries are facing many common challenges which require joint efforts.

"The Caribbean region is very diverse in its rich and varied cultures, languages, geographical settings," he said. "Yet we are here together because despite these differences, many of these small economies are facing common challenges."

Familiar found that many Caribbean economies have been trapped in a "vicious cycle of low growth, high debt level and limited fiscal space" due to their small scale, poor productivity and an oil-dependent energy matrix.

"This combination makes it difficult for a country to build enough buffers that can be used in bad times. This decreases their capacity to face external shocks," he said.

In addition, the senior WB official said that the region is exposed to recurrent natural disasters, leaving small economies more vulnerable, as five out of the ten most disaster-prone countries in the world are Caribbean.

"Effectively tackling these issues requires efforts at the regional level, since effective solutions call for either risk pooling or economies of scale," he said.

Familiar said small economies have to choose what kind of industries to rely on to spur growth, calling on the Caribbean countries to take more proactive approaches when drafting growth strategies.

The Caribbean Growth Forum mechanism, launched in 2013, has led to the implementation of over 100 reforms around the region in improving business climate, boosting skills and productivity, and enhancing connectivity and logistics, according to the World Bank. Endi