PM hails move by World Bank to set up offices in T&T

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has hailed an Es­tab­lish­ment Agree­ment signed with the World Bank for the es­tab­lish­ment and op­er­a­tion of of­fices here.

She says it will fo­cus on strength­en­ing part­ner­ships and sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment in this coun­try.

The agree­ment was signed on Thurs­day be­tween Port-of-Spain and the In­ter­na­tion­al Bank for Re­con­struc­tion and De­vel­op­ment (IBRD), the In­ter­na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment As­so­ci­a­tion (IDA), the In­ter­na­tion­al Fi­nance Cor­po­ra­tion (IFC), and the Mul­ti­lat­er­al In­vest­ment Guar­an­tee Agency (MI­GA).

She said the agree­ment will bring glob­al ex­per­tise, fi­nanc­ing and in­sti­tu­tion­al sup­port di­rect­ly in­to Trinidad and To­ba­go for the first time.

“This is more than an agree­ment. It is a sig­nal to the world that Trinidad and To­ba­go is open, ready, and se­ri­ous about growth, in­vest­ment, and op­por­tu­ni­ty,” the PM said.

She not­ed that the part­ner­ship will sup­port na­tion­al pri­or­i­ties in­clud­ing eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion, job cre­ation, in­fra­struc­ture de­vel­op­ment and sus­tain­able growth.

A cen­tral fo­cus will be struc­tured pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships to un­lock in­vest­ment, ac­cel­er­ate na­tion­al projects and cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for busi­ness­es and en­tre­pre­neurs.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar ex­plained that the agree­ment will ex­pand ac­cess to de­vel­op­ment fi­nanc­ing, tech­ni­cal ex­per­tise and glob­al mar­kets, while build­ing ca­pac­i­ty with­in the pub­lic ser­vice and strength­en­ing in­sti­tu­tions.

She said Gov­ern­ment is al­ready work­ing to­ward a multi­bil­lion-dol­lar in­vest­ment pipeline—with up to US$5 bil­lion in projects over the next five years—tar­get­ing re­new­able en­er­gy, dig­i­tal ser­vices, avi­a­tion and mar­itime de­vel­op­ment.

“This agree­ment al­so po­si­tions our coun­try as a re­gion­al hub for de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion in the Caribbean,” she said. “We are restor­ing con­fi­dence. We are build­ing part­ner­ships. We are cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ty.”

The PM added: “This is how we se­cure a stronger, more pros­per­ous fu­ture for every cit­i­zen.”

Al­so com­ment­ing on the de­vel­op­ment, the World Bank Group said its agree­ment with the Trinidad and To­ba­go gov­ern­ment for the es­tab­lish­ment and op­er­a­tion of of­fices here will al­low for the ad­vance­ment of struc­tured pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships (PPP) as a mech­a­nism for na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

“The es­tab­lish­ment of World Bank Group of­fices in Trinidad and To­ba­go is ex­pect­ed to de­liv­er tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits, in­clud­ing im­proved ac­cess to de­vel­op­ment fi­nanc­ing and tech­ni­cal ex­per­tise, en­hanced ef­fi­cien­cy in the de­sign and im­ple­men­ta­tion of na­tion­al projects, and strength­ened in­sti­tu­tion­al ca­pac­i­ty with­in the pub­lic ser­vice through train­ing and knowl­edge trans­fer,” the WBG said in a state­ment.

It said that the World Bank-sup­port­ed ini­tia­tives in Trinidad and To­ba­go have his­tor­i­cal­ly fo­cused on strength­en­ing hu­man cap­i­tal, im­prov­ing pub­lic health sys­tems, ex­pand­ing in­fra­struc­ture, and ad­vanc­ing en­vi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment.

“These ar­eas re­main cen­tral to the part­ner­ship and are aligned with the gov­ern­ment’s Na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment Pol­i­cy Frame­work,” the WBG added.

The WBG said that the agree­ment will al­so pro­vide di­rect sup­port to the pri­vate sec­tor through the IFC, par­tic­u­lar­ly in in­vest­ment mo­bil­i­sa­tion, en­ter­prise de­vel­op­ment, and the ad­vance­ment of struc­tured pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships, en­abling greater par­tic­i­pa­tion by lo­cal busi­ness­es and im­prov­ing ac­cess to cap­i­tal, ad­vi­so­ry ser­vices, and in­ter­na­tion­al mar­kets.

To date, the IFC has in­vest­ed over US$670 mil­lion in Trinidad and To­ba­go across sec­tors in­clud­ing fi­nan­cial ser­vices, man­u­fac­tur­ing, and busi­ness de­vel­op­ment.

In ad­di­tion, the gov­ern­ment is work­ing with the WBG to de­vel­op a multi­bil­lion-dol­lar in­vest­ment pipeline, with pro­ject­ed fi­nanc­ing be­tween one and three bil­lion US dol­lars for lo­cal busi­ness­es, and up to five bil­lion US dol­lars over the next three to five years to sup­port pri­vate-sec­tor-led di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion ini­tia­tives.

“A sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of these ini­tia­tives is ex­pect­ed to be dri­ven through struc­tured pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ship mod­els, ex­pand­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al in­vestors to par­tic­i­pate in na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment and ac­cel­er­at­ing project im­ple­men­ta­tion,” the WBG said.

Trinidad and To­ba­go has been a long­stand­ing mem­ber of the WBG, join­ing the IBRD as far back as in 1963. The agree­ment pro­vides for de­fined priv­i­leges and im­mu­ni­ties for World Bank Group staff and their im­me­di­ate fam­i­lies, in­clud­ing fa­cil­i­ta­tion of visas, work op­por­tu­ni­ties for spous­es, and ex­emp­tions con­sis­tent with in­ter­na­tion­al prac­tice.

In ad­di­tion, the World Bank Group will ben­e­fit from ex­emp­tions from tax­es, du­ties, and levies on its op­er­a­tions, prop­er­ty, and of­fi­cial trans­ac­tions, in­clud­ing cus­toms du­ties and in­di­rect tax­es.

The Agree­ment guar­an­tees free­dom of fi­nan­cial op­er­a­tions, in­clud­ing the abil­i­ty to hold and trans­fer funds in any cur­ren­cy with­out re­stric­tion, as well as the un­re­strict­ed im­port and ex­port of goods nec­es­sary for of­fice op­er­a­tions and se­cure com­mu­ni­ca­tions us­ing mod­ern sys­tems. —-PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (GML & CMC)