Caribbean Alternative Investment Association Launched

A new entity has been launched aimed at fostering development of the local and regional alternative investment industry.

The not-for-profit entity, dubbed the Caribbean Alternative Investment Association (CARAIA), will promote expansion of private equity, venture capital, real estate, private capital, mezzanine financing and other alternative investment instruments.

It is anchored by the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), through its Jamaica Venture Capital Programme (JVCP). The DBJ has been able to mobilise members of Jamaica’s investment community, as well as international fund managers, to participate in establishing and operationalising the Association.

CARAIA’s strategic focus will be on research and information dissemination; advocacy at the local, regional and international levels; fostering regional institutional development, as well as governance and professional development of members.

Over the short-term, the Association will be Jamaica-focused, but the entity will target the wider Caribbean and Central America over the medium to long-term.

Speaking at the official launch at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Friday (November 15), Managing Director, DBJ, Milverton Reynolds, said CARAIA’s establishment is one of the deliverables under a technical agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2016, for the establishment of a private equity venture capital industry in Jamaica.

He said the DBJ is pleased to have guided the process for the development of the Association, which is private-sector led.

Mr. Reynolds said the establishment of the Association is “good for Jamaica and the wider Caribbean when taken against the background that, globally, the Caribbean is being considered a block”.

“It, therefore, means that the Association will become the voice that speaks collectively on behalf of its members, thereby placing the Caribbean, more effectively, on the world’s alternative investment stage,” he added.

The Advisory Council of CARAIA includes Chairman, Christopher Williams; Joseph Matalon; Nicholas Scott; Jason Morris; Keith Collister; Brian Frazer; Steven Gooden; and Audrey Richards.