BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – DIRECTOR of Economics at the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. Justin Ram believes that islands in the region need to build resilience into their economies as a result of the growing threats from natural disasters and economic factors.
His comment came against the backdrop of Dominica’s devastated economy and other non-member countries of the CDB being severely affected by the passage of two major hurricanes.
Speaking on the sidelines of the recently-concluded Caribbean Tourism Organization’s State of the Industry Conference, Ram noted that over the last several years they have been calling on islands to have resilience be built into their economies.
“That is also very critical, so the message here that we really want to get out is: How do we really build-in resilience into our economy that allows us to now mitigate the obvious vulnerabilities that we have to natural disasters, also to economic shocks as well?”
That call does not only apply to those countries that were affected, Ram intimated, but it is also applicable to all borrowing member states.
Moreover, it was disclosed that they are now eyeing a relentless effort to have priorities implemented by governments.
He advised that individual governments should identify priority areas for resilience implementation.
“What are those priorities? It is really important that governments decide what the implementation priorities are for us, and what do we want to achieve within our time as government.
“And the FIU unit is now there to assist with that. It is quite possible for countries that have [been] negatively impacted by these hurricanes that in order to rebuild and build back better, you would want to ensure that you are implementing not only strict fiscal projects, but also ensure you implement the right policy environment to ensure that you have [a] resilient economy as well.”
Pointing to countries hit by natural disasters and were able to rebound quickly, Ram stated that the populations were resilient – which meant they had access to jobs that allowed them to return to their feet in short order.
Additionally, Ram disclosed that those countries would also have had built-in mechanisms allowing for people to be resilient.
“So here is where I am saying that on our macroeconomics, we need to ensure that we have fiscal rules, that we have debt to GDP ratio that are at manageable levels, but certainly at a level that would perhaps allow our countries to borrow in the face immediately after a natural disaster that would allow them to rebuild.”
Further, he stated that the time has come for consideration of having a Resilience Fund, which would allow governments to tap into those monies, thus reducing the necessity to borrow after disasters.
