CIBC FirstCaribbean hosts infrastructure conference in Montego Bay

CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank, is for the third successive year, hosting a major regional conference focusing on Caribbean infrastructural development through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).

This conference is fast positioning the bank as the regional leader in facilitating and financing PPPs, a release from the bank said.{{more}}

In its first two years, the conference attracted attendance at the highest political level, as well as top international and regional executives and industry experts in the area of infrastructural development and PPPs.

The theme of this year’s conference is: Caribbean Infrastructure: Unlocking Economic Potential.

It is being held this year from June 18 to 19, at the Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

International, regional and local executives are being welcomed by managing director of CIBC FirstCaribbean’ s Jamaica business Nigel Holness, while the bank’s chief executive officer Rik Parkhill will give opening remarks on day one of the conference.

The two-day event focuses on the key principles of the successful development of airport, tourism, water utilities, energy and social infrastructure. Specifically, select regional case studies will be used to demonstrate how to ensure regional projects are suitably credit-enhanced to attract broader investor participation and unlock the full economic potential of infrastructural development in the Caribbean.

The conference will also feature international and regional investors, major infrastructure operators, rating agency infrastructure/project finance specialists and infrastructure project advisors from the private and public sector and multilateral organizations.

Some of the main items on the agenda are: types of regional projects that continue to attract international investment; techniques to increase the credit rating of projects in the region; holistic approaches to airport and cruise port redevelopment; the roll-out of key tourism development projects via public private partnerships; harnessing efficiencies to upgrade water utility infrastructure and the impact of renewable energy on the Caribbean energy mix.

Chief executive officer Rik Parkhill said he was looking forward to this year’s event adding that he was proud of how quickly the conference has grown into a major forum for international, multilateral and regional investors, governments and the private sector to engage with a view to building partnerships aimed at driving infrastructural development in the region.