IDB launches Country Plan 2016-2020

Country representative for the organisatin, Tom?s Bermudez, said he wanted the IDB to be seen as “more than just a bank”, since its role of providing technical expertise was just as important.

This as the multi national is about to publicly release its Country Strategy for 2016-2020.

Bermudez said in retrospect, the flood alleviation initiative may have been a bit too ambitious given the Ministry of Works flood unit’s ability to implement it.

Another programme, this ti me one focused on health, has been scaled down to focus only on combatting the high incidence of Non-Communicable Disease in TT.

Bermudez said the IDB and government had come to terms with the very present reality of lower global commodity prices.

The eff ort to rationalise this country’s loan portfolio and related projects is therefore reflected in the current country plan.

Estimated loan approval over the 2016-2020 period is projected to amount to US$200 million, while US$360 million in disbursements is expected from the active loan portfolio. The country can expect to see a decrease in its debt to the IDB, from 2.6 percent of GDP to 2.5 percent.

The plan’s three main areas of focus are also dedicated to areas that will improve this country’s ability to earn revenue, cut expenditure and enhance human capital. These are strengthening public sector institutions and governance of the country, promoting private sector development and fostering human development.

On strengthening public sector institutions and governance of the country, Bermudez told Business Day, “Here, where we would like to work with government is in trying to mobilise existing and new sources of funding to improve tax legislation and reform expenditure policies. We are also trying to make expenditure more efficient, particularly in social programmes, as well as expenditure for transfers to state enterprises, which is a big drain in the budget right now.” A recently signed agreement for a US$40 million loan to improve the public financial management system is part of this effort.

Regarding the second area, promoting private sector development, Bermudez said, TT has one of the most vibrant private sectors in the region, drawing reference to companies like Massy and Bermudez.

current recession.

get people to work get a construction permit, the recession could be over by the ti me developers are ready to work. This is the kind of thing you could fi x, and put a lot of people to work.” “Things like construction permits,” he said, “It shouldn’t take years to do that. Property registration shouldn’t work the way it is working. Customs.

Those are things that are not too difficult to fi x, if there is will to fi x them. It is not expensive to do it, particularly property rights and construction permits.” The issue of political will came up several times during the interview. Bermudez commended Planning and Development Minister, Camille Robinson Regis, who he said had to make difficult decisions in their programme of cutbacks for projects.

He also praised Finance Minister Colm Imbert for taking “courageous, important, political decisions” to reduce expenditure in the face of the country’s significant loss of revenue.

But as the IDB’s country rep, he worried that expenditure could go back up to pre-recession levels if the country was not careful.

“Now that you have made the big reductions, how do you sustain these going forward? I think the country is at a level right now where they can target a fiscal consolidation for the medium term now,” he said.

More important than this, said Bermudez, were considerations of where expenditures should be increased if this was needed.

Weighing in, the IDB rep told Business Day that he believed increases should be on capital expenditure and investments, rather than transfers.

In the country plan’s third pillar, human development, the IDB wants to align this country’s performance in certain social sector metrics with its position as a relatively high income earn. Bermudez said the country was putti ng in “sub-par” performance on its infant and maternal mortality as well student educational performance when PISA scores were considered.

He told Business Day that the gap between formal education and the employment skills that the private sector needs has also engaged the attention of the IDB.

“We are graduating a lot of people, but not necessarily with the right skills. Bridging that gap is an important task.” Increasing access to quality, affordable housing, water and sanitation services is also on the agenda. Bermudez said this may ultimately mean working along with the state agencies responsible for providing these services to improve delivery.

WASA, in particular, he told Business Day, was not sustainable in the long run.

“We would like to able to work with WASA in things like metering, addressing the issue of non-revenue water and trying to improve the corporate governance of WASA and its labour issues.” He said government transfers to WASA currently equal one percent of the country’s GDP.

The IDB country strategy for 2016-2020 should be publicly available within the next few weeks.