Caribbean Investment Forum Magazine

Our citizens also know that we have l i m i t ed a c c e s s t o e i t h e r Ov e r s ea s Development Assistance or concessional fi nancing from global fi nancial institutions and that our options are limited in accessing fi nance for business development. Our people are clear on what they want - a brighter future for themselves and their children. More speci fi cally, those with whom I speak have an overwhelming interest in either getting jobs or preserving the ones they have so they can take care of themselves and their families. We , a t t h e Ca r i b b e a n E x p o r t Development Agency (Caribbean Export) also recognize these constraints and hear the voices of our Caribbean people. The question is how as a Region, can we emerge from this stranglehold. For us, the solution is obvious – attracting increased levels of local investment and foreign direct investment (FDI). Governments and other stakeholders across the Caribbean must have a singular focus on steering investment our way. To a c h i e v e r e s i l i e n c e a n d e c o n om i c transformation we need to signi fi cantly ramp-up and draw investment to our shores. But fi rst, we must understand the trends and challenges so we can position ourselves accordingly. Globally, there has been a decline in FDI fl ows, with the United Na t i on s Con f e r en c e on T r ade and Development reporting a 42% decline in global foreign direct investment in 2020 in its January 2021 Report. The same report went on to note that one of the most a ff ected Regions is Latin America and the Caribbean which saw a decline of 38% in investment in fl ows from external sources. On the other hand, Asia and Africa witnessed declines of only 18% and 4%, respectively. 3

The outlook for the tourism sector continues to be pessimistic. The World Tourism Organization reports that travel experts surveyed are expecting a return to pre-pandemic levels only by about 2023 (Jan. 2021 report). Therefore, sitting and waiting for tourists to return in the numbers of yesteryear or for global prospects to drive up our export earnings cannot and will not li ft us out of this economic quagmire. This is why, increasing local investment and getting foreign direct investment to our shores is most critical. For the Caribbean to be successful in attracting investment, new thinking in these unprecedented new times is required. Further weakness in FDI fl ows is expected for the rest of the year and for our countries, if we continue with business as usual, the future will be a dim one. Firstly, we cannot continue to compete with each other as individual investment destinations, given our limited resources and populations. This approach cannot achieve the scale required to attract serious money our way. In view of this, we at Caribbean Export are work ing closely wi th the Car ibbean Associat ion of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA) to support our countries in preparing investment projects that can be packaged and promoted as ‘regional’ proposals with more than one country being promoted as an investment destination for a speci fi c venture. This gives much needed scale, and the pooling of resources helps a wider group of countries. 4

CARIBBEAN INVESTMENT FORUM

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