IDB spending US$750M in TT

THE Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is currently spending US$750 million to fund ongoing projects in Trinidad and Tobago, with health, education and transportation being the major beneficiaries. And the bank will provide this country with an additional US one billion dollars in funding over the next three years.

This was revealed by IDB representative to Trinidad and Tobago, William Robinson, when he addressed yesterday’s launch of the Caribbean Consultancy Group (CCG) Ltd at the Cascadia Hotel in St Ann’s. Robinson said the current programme grant and loan resources from the IDB to TT totalled close to US$750 million (US$ 450 million of loan resources, US$300 million of government counterpart funds) and an additional US$500 million from a variety of multilateral and bilateral sources to support the Government’s Public Sector Investment Programme is available. He disclosed that to this should be added another US$500 million which the bank makes available to other Caribbean nations. The most significant, ongoing IDB initiatives in TT are the Health Sector Reform Programme (US$192 million, started July 1996), HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Project (US$25 million, started June 2003), National Highways Programme (US$300.4 million, started June 1996) and the Basic Education Project (US$121.7 million, started June 1995). Health Minister John Rahael said Government had completed 60 percent of the Health Sector Reform Programme.

Robinson said the availability of high quality data would greatly assist the nation’s development process, and Government must focus on improving institutions such as the Central Statistical Office (CSO) to deliver such information. He hailed the CCG’s establishment, adding that “consultants carry the important responsibility of bridging the gap between the academic and the real world.” CCG chairman, Dr Jeffrey Dellimore, said regional consultants were losing out to foreign firms for several reasons such as poor market intelligence and connectedness, lack of financial strength to compete with international firms and low demands for Caribbean consulting firms outside of law and accountancy. Dellimore lamented that in addition to financial losses ranging from US$50 to $250 million annually, “there is a brain drain of our qualified and talented professionals who end up working for consulting firms abroad.” He said the CCG’s prime market focus will be “on that segment with consultancy services valued in excess of US$250,000 which is typically challenging for small Caribbean consulting firms.”