Sealed, signed and now to be delivered.
That’s the status of an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan of US$52 million for the Four Seasons hotel and resort project in Barbados.
The bank’s executive board, headed by its president Luis Alberto Moreno, yesterday morning approved the investment needed to restart the project, stalled since February 2009.
“Approval by the board signals that the bank regards the project as both viable and vital,” Dr Richard Bernal, the Caribbean’s executive director at the IDB, told the DAILY NATION.
Bernal, who along with Moreno played a key role in securing the board’s approval, said: “The Inter-American Development Bank has in the past not done many private-public sector partnerships in high-end tourism but understood that Barbados as a small country does not have the capacity for mass tourism and must maximize the returns through its proven capability and comparative advantage in high-end tourism.”
Read the full story in today’s DAILY NATION.