Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler has urged the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to set realistic and achievable conditions and goals for its developmental loans and other financial assistance.
He made the appeal yesterday at the bank’s Third Annual Retreat of Caribbean Civil Consultative Groups at the Hilton Barbados.
“May I issue a word of caution . . . It is important that whatever we do in the relationship we have in terms of this partnership, that it does not prescribe or seem to prescribe conditions which none of us can successfully navigate.
“Whether it is in project work or it is in straight financing options and mechanisms, we have to ensure that what we do is realistic and achievable. Setting unrealistic goals, establishing unrealistic mechanisms or compliance whether it is in projects or loans and then lamenting the fact that we have not been able to achieve what we said we wanted to achieve is not a remedy for success – it is actually a remedy for failure. It is a remedy for defeatism and it does not achieve the goals which we want to achieve,” he told IDB officials and retreat participants.
“Our view is that new, interesting, innovative and adaptable instruments have to be created to assist those countries that have and are now currently unable to navigate this the world’s greatest recession.
“We see the IDB as a champion in this particular regard and we believe that the IDB, through its extensive research and human resource capacity, should be able and will be able to meet the challenge of working with our countries to safely navigate the choppy waters of this international recession, even as we work with our partners in civil society to ensure that those most marginalised in our community can continue to participate in the livelihoods of their own countries,” he said.
“What we require of our bank, the IDB, is that it truly continues to live up to its mantra as a development bank. We see the IDB as a development institution understanding development in ways that other international financial institutions do not and therefore the responsibility of all of the members and all the management of the bank is to ensure that that process continues into the future,” Sinckler added.
“The IDB should not see itself as a second rate version of the IMF . . . it is not. It should not see itself as aspiring to become the World Bank – it will never be that. It is a development institution, constructed and established to serve its members and to ensure that those who are going through difficulties are able to manage those successfully. The failure of your membership means the failure of the bank,” the minister said. (RMB)