IDB Funding Aid for Trade Activities in Region

KINGSTON — The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) provided funding of more than US$18 billion for Aid for Trade activities in the Central American and Caribbean regions between 2008 and 2010, said IDB Representative in Jamaica, Ancile Brewster.

Mr. Brewster, who was speaking at the launch of Jamaica’s Aid for Trade Strategy recently at the Knutsford Court Hotel, New Kingston, said the funding has, among other things, aided in building roads, ports, and telecommunications links to regional and global markets.  

Additionally, he said, it has provided technical assistance to position countries to hammer out trade agreements, negotiate more effectively and efficiently, and apply the results of these partnership agreements within their own frameworks.   

The Aid for Trade Strategy is an initiative of the World Trade Organization (WTO), aimed at assisting developing countries, particularly the least developed and most vulnerable, to build their trade capacity. It is designed to attract and ensure focused access to investment and aid resources, in order to assist countries to better integrate into the global economy and benefit from liberalised trade and increased market access.

The strategy, Mr. Brewster said, draws on many of the other areas the IDB supports, and allows the specific channeling of investments into infrastructure, industries, and specific sectors so that countries can diversify their exports and benefit from comparative advantages.

Among the initiatives that the Bank has worked on is the Integrated Infrastructure for South America (IISA), where the institution has played a pivotal role in some of the trans-Oceanic corridors for the movement of cargo and facilitation of trade on the continent.

Mr. Brewster said the institution has also been an "important mobiliser" of the Trade Strategic Thematic Fund which, was launched in 2009 with approximately US$12 million. Contributions to this facility were provided primarily by Canada, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Focus areas include: trade facilitation, logistics, standards, negotiations, and the implementation of trade agreements.

“One of the very critical areas…is…logistics. Jamaica is a very important logistical hub in terms of regional and, perhaps, even global shipping, and the Bank is very cognisant of this potential that Jamaica has, and is working actively to support the expansion of this capacity. One of the areas of concern, however, relates to the (wider) logistics within the Caribbean region, and the constraint(s)… in terms of promoting inter-regional trade,” he stated.

Mr. Brewster pointed out that, within the Caribbean, the IDB has also been helping to support countries such as Jamaica, and territories of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), which are not a part of the institution, to mainstream trade into their national development agendas.  

“As part of that support and assistance, the IDB is helping countries to develop their national strategies, and this will also include a list of potential projects that the IDB may, itself, in the future, finance but also to improve coordination around ministries within the country, and agencies, and encourage public/private partnerships,” he informed.

Such strategies have been completed in Belize and Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago is being assisted in developing their strategy, with the process to be completed by the first quarter of 2012. The IDB is also assisting with development of a CARICOM Regional Strategy, which is scheduled for completion by the second quarter of 2012.

“The IDB will continue to support the implementation of these strategies, by committing grant resources towards activities that are included in the action matrix, which is usually a consensus document by several different agencies within the government. I think we are definitely on the cusp of a very exciting programme of Aid for Trade,” Mr. Brewster said.

Development of Jamaica’s strategy was led by the Government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, in partnership with the IDB and United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID).   

By Douglas Mcintosh, JIS Reporter