The Caribbean may not, after all, find itself excluded from the mix when key international organisations and heavy hitters in the global business community begin to seriously zero in on post-COVID recovery targeting developing countries, according to a Caribbean Business Report disclosure made earlier this week.
The report alludes to an emerging collaboration between the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and a coalition of forty “global corporate executives” described as being amongst “the world’s most innovative global and regional companies” with the objective of launching “a historic partnership in aiding Latin American and the Caribbean’s recovery in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
While there are clear signs (the global vaccination frenzy notwithstanding) that the pandemic may still not be nearing spending itself, what the report describes as a “historic partnership for Caribbean recovery” is driven by an undertaking given by the business leaders to work as a coalition in three areas which they regard as “critical to post-pandemic economic recovery,” namely, “empowering women, accelerating digitalization, and strengthening regional value chains.”
The initiative, the Report says, kicked off with a meeting hosted by IDB President Mauricio Claver-Carone and titled, “Private-Sector Partners Roundtable on the Future of Latin America and the Caribbean”.
The report alludes to an IDB report on the development which referred to Claver-Carone’s discussions with “the leading private sector executives” on the subject of the existing “unique opportunities to drive growth and investment in the region,” though Claver-Carone is quoted as saying that while Latin America and the Caribbean were “brimming with opportunities,” it was time to “turn rhetoric into action.”
Arising out of what appears to have been regarded as an initial discourse, the group signed what was described as a “Partnership Declaration” and undertook to work with the IDB to mobilise resources in these three critical areas with which to take their undertaking forward.
The IDB is reportedly treating the promised collaborative response between itself and elements of the international private sector as well-merited given the fact that Latin America and the Caribbean “has been hit harder by the pandemic than any other region.”
“The meeting is the start of an intensified effort to strengthen collaboration between the IDB and top private sector companies to promote investment and create the type of jobs that will help the region’s post-pandemic economy thrive,” the IDB is quoted as saying. This, according to the Bank, is the first in a series of collaborations that it plans to host with the private sector.
Following the coalition event, the IDB said it is now convening “action-oriented working groups” with corporate partners to solidify partnership opportunities in each of the priority areas identified for action.
