UK investment agency to bring financing opportunities to the region

Ainsworth Morris/Staff Reporter

Jamaica is set to benefit from investment opportunities from the United Kingdom through the agency the British International Investment (BII).

The BII, formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation, forms part of the UK's wider commitment to strengthen economic partnerships and investment globally.

Following a 20-year absence from the region, the BII programme was launched on Tuesday by Jesse Norman, UK Minister for the Americas and Overseas Territories in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, at the St Andrew residence of the British High Commissioner.

It was outlined that the return to the Caribbean will offer a vital new source of financing for the region as it tackles its biggest challenges.

It is regarded as a key part of the UK's global plans to mobilise up to £8 billion a year of public and private sector investment by 2025. 

This will include partnering with capital markets, leveraging the firepower of the city of London and other funds, to scale up financing for private sector development. 

Norman said that the programme's first new investment for the Caribbean is in the pipeline, with an announcement to be made in the coming weeks.

He said that the initiative will help usher in a new wave of investment in clean and green infrastructure, digital transformation, making investments that bolster financial institutions and businesses, create jobs, and boost trade. 

“The United Kingdom and Jamaica share very, very deep ties, including through the nearly one million-strong Jamaican Diaspora in the UK through our common history and language and our partnerships on the global stage. Those ties are characterised by a love of freedom and an energetic and entrepreneurial spirit,” Norman said. 

For his part, Jamaica's Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke, said the programme comes at a time when Jamaica is open and ready for opportunities.

He noted that Jamaica still has work to do with infrastructure and leverage fiscal credibility and economic stability. 

“We left in the 1990s when there were other priorities for CDC. We were focusing more on Africa …we've grown quite a bit since those times. Now we have about almost £8 billion of investments, and I think on the back of that larger portfolio, the Government saw that we could expand our geography and the Caribbean was clearly one of the priority geographies the government wanted to take us back to,” stated Colin Buckley, Managing Director, BII.

Highlighting the issue of the gap in financing, British High Commissioner to Jamaica, Judith Slater, said that BII is designed to fill address this issue.

“I'm so excited for today. They're coming back and they will enhance and compliment all the other areas of our work,” Slater said. 

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com 

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