Caribbean, Global South must create more financing channels

 

Regional leaders say the Caribbean and economies in the Global South, must push to create more favourable financing channels to support growth.

 

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley says meetings like the Afri-Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum, along with the presence of the AfreximBank in the Caribbean, present new channels to explore these options. 

 

"We keep looking north for investment, but we need to look within and across. And I believe that if we can find the appropriate instruments to mobilise capital and the savings of our people, and if we can find a way that makes it easy to understand what the possibilities for those investments can be, I believe that we can do far more to help ourselves even before we look to ask others to help us."

 

She said the reform of the global financial architecture is still critical, so that countries with excess liquidity - like many in the Caribbean - and those exposed to extreme climate conditions do not have to "put all of our eggs in one basket". 

 

Ms. Mottley was speaking at the AfreximBank Annual Meetings in the Bahamas.