Cabinet approves US$11M for fund

This sum represents 4.98 percent of the total programme for the SDF, a Ministry of Planning and Development release said.

The ninth cycle covers the period 2017 to 2020, and the payment will be made in instalments over the period of the cycle.

The Special Development Fund is a partnership among CDB members where borrowing and non-borrowing members contribute to the fund financially.

Trinidad and Tobago is one of the major contributors to the fund as a member country.

In 2013, for the eight cycle, Cabinet had agreed through the Ministry of Planning and Development, to the sum of US$10 million or 4.25 percent of the total amount of US$348 million of the fund’s value. The eighth cycle covers 2013 to December 31, 2016. In 2012, TT’s contribution to the seventh cycle was US$3.5 million.

The SDF provides loan funding as well as grant financing for sustainable development initiatives in developing states of the Region.

This SDF, the release said, plays a critical role in the international effort to reduce poverty in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of which Trinidad and Tobago’s National Development Strategy — Vision 2030 is tied to — and assists with economic transformation and major economic adjustments within the CDB’s borrowing member countries.

Trinidad and Tobago has benefitted from the CDB through loans for energy sector support in 2014, establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2003, establishment of the National Energy Skills Centre in 2000 and southern roads development programme in 1995. Meanwhile Minister of Planning and Development Camille Robinson-Regis was TT’s representative at the CDB’s Board of Governors 47th Annual Meeting in the Turks and Caicos. The three-day meeting ended last Friday.