Business View Caribbean | Feb 2019

FEBRUARY 2019 Opening Lines CDB RAMPING UP RESEARCH TO ADDRESS CARIBBEAN REGION’S CHALLENGES T he Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is ramping up its research activity to help regional governments better tackle chal- lenges related to environmental sustainability, economic and fiscal resilience, and implementa- tion. CDB’s Director of Economics, Dr. Justin Ram, announced this at the Bank’s annual news confer- ence, held recently in Barbados. “Taking it a step further, this year, the bank proposes to publish research that focuses on assessing and measur- ing the vulnerability and resilience of our bor- rowing member countries. This work will improve the measurement and therefore the utility of the index as one of the tools CDB uses to allocate our most concessional resources,” Ram stated. The Director stressed the urgent need for reform and action to build macroeconomic resilience, environmental sustainability, productivity and competitiveness, and human capacity—a posi- 4