NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Disaster resilience and sustainable growth continued to take centre stage during interventions made by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance K. Peter Turnquest at a recent regional forum.
Turnquest spoke at the 9th Annual International Monetary Fund/Caribbean Development Bank’s Caribbean Forum on Regional Transformation for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth in Bridgetown, Barbados.
The Forum assembled high level decision makers in the region to work together toward a disaster resilience strategy, to discuss regional integration and the leveraging of common institutional arrangements, improving tax policy in the Caribbean, and the changing geopolitical environment and future of multilateralism.
It followed a full day of discussions with similar regional counterparts and insurance industry representatives at an Insurance Colloquium, titled “Insurance in the Age of Climate Change”, hosted by the Government of Barbados and the Inter-American Development Bank.
Turnquest participated in discussions on alternative approaches and mechanisms to fill the financing gaps related to hurricanes, such as widening the premiums pool, hurricane clauses in debt instruments and financial innovations such as resilience bonds.
He also engaged in discussions around loss and damage related to climate change; rising insurance premiums and loss of insurance coverage; and the ability of the private insurance to meet the rising risks and cost of climate change.
the capacity of the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility to meet rising risks and costs; the cost of relief from: natural disasters and building back better.
The forums were considered successful in highlighting the issues facing development and growth in the region, debt mitigation strategies and risk transfer options to address climate, infrastructure, financial and social risks.
