SVG gets EC$240 million CDB loan to help in transformation and resilience building

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has made available to St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), EC$240 million through the Country Engagement Strategy (CES) to, among things, undertake transformation actions and build climate resilience for the period 2022-2026.

The money is being made available mainly through low interest concessional loans.

Director of the Economics Department at the CDB, Ian Durrant spoke about the CES on Tuesday, March 28 during the project’s launch at the conference room of the Sunset Shores in Villa, stressing that the CES is guided by SVG’s National Economic and Social Development Plan 2013-2025 (NESDP).

This plan defines the country’s development vision as improving the quality of life for all Vincentians.

It was noted that under the theme “Re-engineering Economic Growth: Improving the Quality of Life for all Vincentians”, the NESDP advances several strategic goals and broad objectives in support of attaining balanced, comprehensive, and sustainable development.

Speaking at the launch, Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves, under whose Ministry the CES falls, told the gathering that the story of development in the context of SVG, is how quickly we can recover from setbacks.

Gonsalves, who is also responsible for economic planning, said this is so because countries like SVG grow and develop for a few years then a hurricane or some other natural disaster (volcano in the case of SVG) or outside factor sets back the country.

“…and you’re set back four or five years and you have to rebuild your water infrastructure, you have to rebuild your electricity infrastructure, and things that you have planned are put on pause as you get back to where you were before the disaster”.

“Then you have a couple more years of peace and then boom, banks start collapsing in the United States or the United Kingdom, then there is a contagion or a global economic crisis then boom you’re back to square one again so you’re constantly, as Michael Manley once said, trying to go up the down escalator,” Gonsalves said.

The Finance Minister said this means that the issue of resilience is about shortening that recovery window so if enough resilience is built into your economy and infrastructure, when natural disasters or outside forces attack, the country does not go back a decade.

He said the longer it takes for SVG to implement its transformation and resilience building agendas, the longer it takes to get on with development.

“So that’s why this is the mandate as I see it, of the Ministry of Economic Planning, we are about development, we are about resilience, we are about transformation.

“…and when I look at an investment of EC$240 million into our development, because it is coming from the Caribbean Development Bank, I imagine where we are in 2026, because this is from 2022 to 2026, and I ask myself whether or not the programmes that are part of the strategy will move the needle measurably in development, in transformation, or in resilience building,” Gonsalves commented.

It is noted that SVG’s NESDP identifies several overarching development goals that are critical to achieving its vision of improving the quality of life for all Vincentians, including, re-engineering economic growth, enabling increased human and social development, promoting good governance and increasing the effectiveness of public administration, improving physical infrastructure, preserving the environment and building resilience to climate change and building national pride, identity and culture.

The government also views green and climate resilient investment (including for the energy sector) as a critical component in re-energizing recovery and enhancing the economy’s resilience to climate effects.

Also, the Government, through its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), has expressed a commitment to reducing the country’s carbon emissions consistent with its vision of sustainable development.

Gonsalves said SVG is coming out of some very challenging times as it is the only country in the world in the space of three years to experience, COVID-19, a volcanic eruption, and a hurricane.

“A lot of people forget Elsa but we are the only ones…to have that triple blow and the fourth blow, the worse drought that we experience in this country in 82 years…so drought, hurricane, COVID, volcano in a two to three year period and the response to what we face cannot be generic,” Gonsalves stressed while adding that the CES for SVG has to be unique to the country.

“Because the challenges that we faced are unique and devastating in their impact so I hope that as we continue to refine this engagement we keep these things in mind,” Gonsalves noted.

Among other things, SVG’s CES has as its pillars and expected outcomes, re-engineering economic growth, enabling enhanced human and social development, preserving environment sustainability and enhancing climate resilience.

The strategy supports these goals through the following outcomes: building capacity in support of climate smart agriculture (CSA); agri-business growth, and Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) development; strengthening progress in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) integration in national planning; improving the availability of resilient productive infrastructure; strengthening human capital, gender equality, and social protection; and enhancing environmental sustainability and climate change resilience.

The CES aligns with the current parliamentary term and election cycle.

Gonsalves said that a lot of consultations have taken place and the CDB has engaged with the various ministries to deliver several projects under the CES.