ST GEORGE’S – Governor of the St Kitts-based Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Timothy Antoine says he believes a regional resilience fund should be established to assist countries rebuild following the devastation cause by natural disasters such floods or hurricanes.
Antoine, who spoke with reporters following a Country Outreach programme here, said that the suggestion for such a fund came up at the last ECCB Monetary Council meeting and it was strongly recommended that countries in the region establish such an instrument in additional to the coverage provided by the Cayman Islands-based Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF)
CCRIF offers earthquake, tropical cyclone and excess rainfall policies to Caribbean and Central American governments. It helps to mitigate the short-term cash flow problems small developing economies suffer after major natural disasters. A pay-out is usually made within 14 days of the disaster.
“We believe that the insurance need to increase in terms of coverage, but we also believe that there is need for a regional resilience fund to help with rebuilding the infrastructure” he said.
“There are needs and we have to be able to raise resources to fund the resilience and we think we can make the argument to strengthen our hands by ourselves establishing the fund,” he said while recommending that countries administering the controversial Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) can allocated a percentage of the earnings from that programme to the resilience fund.
The CIP allows for foreign investors to get citizenship of a particular Caribbean island once that investor makes a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of the country.
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts-Nevis and St Lucia are ECCB member countries that operate CIPs. The ECCB serves as a central bank for these countries as well as St Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.
Antoine told reporters that discussions have already started within the sub-region about establishing national resilience fund in the aftermath of recent hurricanes and the discussion has now become a regional focus.
“In a number of countries, we were discussing this with them before the hurricane, so this is not a hurricane idea we were talking about it before, at the time we were thinking more nationally, but in like of the hurricane and the multiple hits this season, we felt that we should make it more of a regional fund,” he said.
Grenada is one of the few countries in the region with a designate resilience fund which the state can only use in the event of a natural disaster. It is funded by a two per cent of the annual budget. (CMC)
