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CEO of Invest Caribbean, Ms. Felicia Persaud, participated in a discussion on strengthening US-Caribbean trade and investment relations.

BUSINESS MONDAY: CALL FOR $200M FUND

THE new Joe Biden administration in the USA is being challenged to come up with a Bds$200 million fund to assist Barbados and the Caribbean with their post-COVID economic revival.

CEO of Invest Caribbean, Ms. Felicia Persaud, made the appeal last week, when she participated in a discussion on strengthening US-Caribbean trade and investment relations. It was sponsored by the Shridath Ramphal Centre.

The CEO listed the funding among several demands from the USA administration, which she reasoned are necessary for rebuilding Caribbean economies hit hard by COVID-19.

Stating that the number one challenge to trade and investment in the Caribbean remains access to capital, Dr. Persaud said that is something they are finding whether it relates to large or small businesses.

According to her, American banks have already said up front they are not lending to the Caribbean. “So we are having to find private lenders and to go further afield globally for lenders including China, for our projects,” Persaud said.

She said the Bds$200 million Caribbean Development Fund should be used in the post-pandemic era to create jobs, grow the economies, and to invest in business projects across economic sectors.

In pressing for such support, Persaud argued that successive administrations in the United States have ignored the Caribbean and the Americas, treating the entire region as a step-child.

That fund, she explained, should be managed not by a government institution, but rather by a private hedge fund working with investment companies to give capital directly to those who require it.

Highlighting other components of her proposed action plan, Dr. Persaud said that:

• Mr. Biden should used his Caribbean roots – Vice President, Kamala Harris – to launch the fund;

• the Biden administration should co-host a conference on the future of the Caribbean;

• the US Government should foster partnerships between major US and Caribbean companies, so that products from this region can make it to the American market;

• President Biden should create an Assistant Secretary of State for the Caribbean and not just for the Western hemisphere;

• Biden should choose his Caribbean ambassadors from among people who are knowledgeable about the region; and

• Caribbean governments should use the pandemic to hit the reset button while creating a five- to 10-year vision plan.

“From that we can move to trade that is coming from the region and investment from the region that is beyond tourism and just hotels,” she suggested.

Ms. Persaud suggested further that “we create our own Silicon Valley with technical businesses, incubators, education and training, and easily access to funding”. In light of this, she has found that while many tech start-ups are growing across the region, they lack the access to capital not just in one country, but across several of them.

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