Barbados _The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) approved USD306 million (mn) in loans and grants, the highest approval total during the past five years. And of the countries for which funding was approved, Belize, Saint Lucia and Suriname were the three largest beneficiaries of loans. Dr. William Warren Smith, CDB President, made this announcement during the Bank’s Annual News Conference today in Barbados.

Dr. Smith pointed out that, in addition to the grants approved in 2016, the Bank began implementing the United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund (UK CIF). UK CIF is a £300 million grant programme for transformational infrastructure projects in eight Caribbean countries and one British overseas territory, which CDB administers. £16.4 mn in grants was approved for projects and technical assistance in Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica and Grenada.

Last year, the Bank also signed a Credit Facility Agreement with Agence Française de Développement. It included a USD33 million loan to support sustainable infrastructure projects and a EUR3 mn grant to fund feasibility studies for projects eligible for financing under the credit facility.

Also in 2016, CDB entered an arrangement with the Government of Canada for the establishment and administration of a CAD5 million fund to build capacity in the energy sector, The Canadian Support to the Energy Sector in the Caribbean Fund.               These recent partnerships are part of the Bank’s drive to raise appropriately-priced resources mainly for financing projects with a strong focus on climate adaptation, renewable energy and energy efficiency…[+]