The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) approved US$536.6 million in loans and grants for its Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) in 2020 to finance improvements in economic infrastructure, social resilience, policy-based initiatives and COVID-19 mitigation.

This represents a 77 per cent increase over the US$303 million approved in 2019. Loan financing accounted for US$380 million, up from US$253.7 million in 2019, while grant funding was US$156.6 million, which was more than double the US$49.3 million approved in 2019.

CDB’s disbursements also rose in 2020 totalling US$357.4 million, representing a 17 per cent increase on the US$304.9 million achieved the prior year. Loans climbed to US$283.2 million, up from US$231.5 million in 2019, while grants inched up to US$74.2 million in 2020 coming from US$73.4 million in 2019.

The bulk of the financing approved in 2020 was for large-scale economic infrastructure projects including:  

• US$190 million for the upgrading of 121 kilometres of roadway from Linden to Mabura Hill in Guyana.  This is the largest project CDB has approved for financing.
• US$60 million to upgrade 125 kilometres of the Philip S. W. Goldson Highway and the Remate Bypass Road, a vital trade corridor between Belize, Guatemala and Mexico; and  
• US$55 million to rehabilitate and improve 40 kilometres of the Millennium Highway and West Coast Road in St. Lucia.

Other approvals in 2020 included:

• US$13.7 million for nine school improvement projects which will benefit more than 6,000 students across St Vincent and the Grenadines;
• US$8.6 million for a 5 MW utility battery-energy-storage and 1 MW grid-connected solar photovoltaic system project in St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and
• US$7.5 million in grant financing for the Community-Based Agriculture and Rural Development Project II, which will improve food and nutrition security in Haiti.

The CDB also advanced work on several projects in 2020 including the Dennery North Water Supply Redevelopment Project in St Lucia, which has improved the water supply system for approximately 2,900 households. Implementation of the Long Island and Crooked Island Water Supply Improvement Project in the Bahamas also progressed to the benefit of 540 households.

During the year, CDB launched the CND$20 million Canada-CARICOM Climate Adaptation Fund in partnership with the Government of Canada.

The objective is to strengthen disaster risk management capacity in nine BMCs: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname. 

Also, the construction and upgrade of 59 classrooms in basic schools were completed through the CDB’s Basic Needs Trust Fund, which will benefit close to 1,100 students across the region.

In part three of the CDB’s Regional Report: 2020 Review and 2021 Outlook, issued on Monday, March 1, President, Dr Warren Smith highlighted, “Despite the logistic and other setbacks caused by the pandemic in 2020, CDB approved funding for projects aimed at boosting the Region’s export competitiveness and better preparing the economies for the post-COVID recovery.”