Business View Caribbean | June 2019

10 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN JUNE 2019 The Vice President thanked CDB’s partners for their “vision and … willingness to collaborate” on the project as well as the “scale and timeliness” of their various contributions. These contributions included: • A package of resources worth USD$16.3 million through IDB, consisting of an IDB loan, a grant from the global environmental facility, and contingently recoverable grant resources from the clean technology fund; • IDB provided its financing under the sustainable energy for the eastern Caribbean facility, a joint program with CDB; • An investment grant of £4 million from DFID; • A grant of EUR 4.9 million from EU-CIF under its geothermal risk mitigation for the Eastern Caribbean program and; • Technical assistance from the government of New Zealand, allowing for the engagement of experts to provide technical, advisory, and managerial support. In recalling the journey towards the start of geothermal energy drilling, Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, pointed out that his government originally owned a 25 percent stake in the St. Vincent Geothermal Company Limited. However, he noted that the government was able to increase its shareholdings, thanks to grants and concessional loans received from various partners like CDB. “These grants positioned us to have greater ownership for the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines through increased equity contribution that would result in a decrease in the price to electricity consumers,” Gonsalves said. St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the first country to benefit from investment funding under GeoSmart; CDB’s initiative to mobilize and provide appropriate technical expertise and concessional financing to support the various stages of geothermal energy development projects in Eastern Caribbean countries. CDB has been supporting the use of our natural resources, solar, wind and geothermal, to produce clean and lower cost energy