Colm Imbert

Interview

Q/ What are the main achievements in the development of the Caribbean region and the most urgent challenges you see ahead?

Let’s address the challenges first. The Caribbean is right in the middle of the Atlantic hurricane belt, and the season runs from June to November. So, every year, there will be at least one hurricane hitting the Caribbean islands, sometimes more than one, and they can be very destructive. And many of these islands are small, so it’s hard for them to withstand their effects. We had one in July of last year that hit the top of Grenada and then Carriacou and St. Vincent, and it literally flattened the islands.

Hurricanes also go all the way up the island chain. So when one comes in at the bottom of the chain, it starts going up, and more often than not, it will hit Jamaica, Haiti, it will hit Cuba, and then it will continue on its way to North America, hitting Florida, and so on. There is nothing the Caribbean islands can do about it. They have to try to build hurricane-resistant housing, make sure they have adequate drainage systems, but there’s not much they can do except prepare. So this is going to continue to happen within the Caribbean.

As for other natural disasters, such as earthquakes, our region is not really prone. The last major earthquake was in Haiti, 14 years ago, in 2010. So the islands continually face these problems. Sometimes it takes them a long time to recover, but they are used to it. In terms of the development challenges in the region, you have to remember that some of the islands are very small, with very small populations, 100,000 people, for example.

There are three islands in the Caribbean that are not part of Caricom, and they represent the majority of the population. The population of the region is just over 40 million, 44 million in fact. But three islands account for 33 million of that number: Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, each with a population of about 10 or 11 million. The remaining 10 million are what we really think of as the Caribbean in terms of an electoral and trade bloc.

Now, many of the economies of the Caribbean, or Caricom, as it is called, are single-product. Most of the islands depend on tourism. Trinidad and Tobago is oil, gas and manufactured goods, and Guyana, which is not really an island, but is part of Caricom, is now thriving on oil discoveries. But the main islands depend on tourism. Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, Antigua, have single-product economies. In the past, they relied on agriculture for exports and income. And that was thanks to preferential trade agreements with the European Union, which have now disappeared.

Therefore, agriculture is no longer the mainstay of the economy of any of the countries, except Guyana. Guyana is a powerhouse when it comes to agriculture, and therefore is not in a bad situation. It was a severely underdeveloped country, but now it is thriving because of the discovery of oil. So one of the areas to consolidate and grow the economy in the Caribbean is tourism; that’s where they need to move forward. In other countries, such as Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, to a lesser extent, it is about boosting manufacturing and penetrating the Central American, South American and North American markets.

Q/ In spite of everything, do you identify any achievements in the region?

Well, we have a very educated population, certainly, at least in the English-speaking Caribbean. And this is a positive aspect of our colonial history. We have the English high school education that we all know about, that’s very positive. The citizens of the English-speaking Caribbean are very educated, more so than in many other parts of the world, which is a great advantage. We are also very talented. I don’t know why this has happened, but you find that Caribbean people are very creative and innovative. Those are some of our strengths. Our very good education system and our creativity and innovation.

Q/ What makes the region’s situation unique when it comes to addressing the triple challenge of sustainable development?

Well, the real problem is climate change. We didn’t cause it. And Trinidad and Tobago, in particular, is in a not so nice situation. Because one of the tricks, shall we say, that the developed world uses to measure carbon emissions is to use a ratio called per capita emissions. So in Trinidad and Tobago we have methanol plants, we have urea plants, we have ammonia plants, we have oil and gas production. The emissions are high from a per capita point of view because our population is only 1.3, 1.4 million. But in terms of the amount of emissions, it is nothing, absolutely nothing, it does nothing to the ozone layer.

In Trinidad and Tobago we have to argue that we are not responsible for climate change. Although our per capita emissions are high, the amount is almost undetectable. The other islands do not contribute to climate change at all, but they are affected by it. Sea level rise is causing erosion, it is damaging coastal regions. Guyana, for example, has saltwater intrusion damaging their agricultural communities along the coast, and so on. And then, of course, there are more intense hurricanes, much more difficult weather patterns, rain when it’s supposed to be dry and drought when it’s supposed to be rainy. These are challenges that the Caribbean must overcome if it is to be sustainable.

Q/ From a state capacity perspective, addressing this triple challenge will require effective public policies and also strong institutions. What key elements do you identify as part of the institutional framework and what capacities do states need to meet this challenge?

The region, again, has very strong institutions. In fact, some of the smaller islands are more advanced than some of the larger ones. Some of the smaller ones, for example, have functional revenue authorities, whereas we in Trinidad are still struggling to operationalize ours. We have a very strong judiciary throughout the region. The Privy Council is still the final court in some countries, and it is the Caribbean Court of Justice in others. We have a very strong institutional capacity in the region, and that helps us a lot. We don’t have revolutions or coups d’état, except from time to time. So we are not affected by that kind of social unrest. That is a strength for the Caribbean as well. In terms of government governance, we have well-functioning democracies and parliamentary systems, a proper separation of the various branches of government, the legislative, the executive, the judiciary. So we are, in fact, a model for the world in this regard.

Q/ What mechanisms can the region develop to promote energy transition while maintaining fiscal sustainability?

The energy transition is very important for the smaller island states. They must move towards renewable energy, solar, wind, etc., because they currently import their fuel to power power power stations and various other activities on the islands. We in Trinidad and Tobago are in a dilemma because we get most of our income from oil and gas. Of course, we want to move into renewable energy and we are doing that: we have the largest solar power project in the Caribbean under construction right now. It’s a BP and Shell project. They tell us it will start producing electricity to feed the grid next year. So we continue to do solar energy projects.

Our electric generating stations are fueled by natural gas. The natural gas that is used to produce electricity now can be diverted and used in our petrochemical sector because we simply don’t have enough gas. If we can produce electricity using solar energy, then we have more natural gas for our petrochemical sector, our production sector, and we kill two birds with one stone. We are moving aggressively towards solar electricity generation, although the other islands are ahead of us. If you go to Barbados, for example, you would see a solar water heater on top of almost every house, and they are also moving towards using renewable energy.

Q/ You touched on a related topic, but you may want to elaborate on the role that natural gas can play in that energy transition, especially in countries like Trinidad.

I would like to say more about that. Most of the power plants in the region are old, fueled by diesel or even a dirtier form of fuel called fuel oil. So we, in Trinidad and Tobago, are phasing out the use of diesel. I think we have only one diesel-based power plant left. The rest are running on natural gas, as I understand it. And the other Caribbean countries have to do the same. They have to phase out the use of diesel or fuel oil in their power generation facilities, because natural gas is cleaner, produces less emissions and is better for the environment. That’s where they need to go, and that’s where CAF can help. CAF can help these countries make the transition from dirty fuels to cleaner fuels like natural gas.

Q/ What policies are needed to strengthen adaptation mechanisms in Caribbean countries?

I assume you are talking about adaptation in terms of fuel use. What exactly are you referring to? Adaptation in terms of a country’s preparedness to cope with the impacts of climate change? That’s a difficult question, because what really affects the Caribbean is hurricanes and rainfall. And we really have to improve the construction of our buildings, build hurricane-resistant housing. Some of the islands don’t experience hurricanes all the time, they can be spared and, as a result, many of their houses really can’t withstand a hurricane. Like Karakiu, for example, which was not prepared for that hurricane. So we need to improve our housing stock.

Turning a bit to the topic of digital transformation, automation and the use of AI will bring about profound changes in legal markets, in the productive structures of countries in the region and in the way the State interacts with citizens. What opportunities and challenges does digital transformation pose for closing development gaps in the Caribbean and, in particular, in air traffic?

Let’s talk about electronic payments. If we look at India, for example, they have developed cashless transactions to the point where even a street vendor puts a QR code on his stall. The customer comes in, scans it with his phone, uses a mobile wallet and makes the payment. This makes digital transactions very easy. In India, we are moving toward that. Many of the other countries as well. But it’s not just payments. There seems to be an electronic identity as well. So, instead of having an ID card, the user has an electronic identity and all his information will be stored there.

In terms of passports, the Caribbean is approaching what the rest of the world is doing, the electronic passport with a chip. So you no longer have to use machine-readable passports. We simply walk up to the machine and it reads the chip. I would say some of the smaller islands are further ahead of us in terms of digital transformation. We all have some catching up to do, but we are certainly all moving in this direction, taking full advantage of technology. Here in Trinidad and Tobago we are building a data center, we have a developer center, we are moving towards cashless transactions, we are digitizing the whole public service, for example, payments, registrations, that kind of thing. And that’s where CAF can also help us in the digital transformation.

On the digital transformation front, we are already partnering, I think, with the data center. CAF is already helping us with that, and has given us funds to help us with our digital transformation strategy. And the other islands are doing the same. Even though these countries have smaller populations, they are further ahead of us in many things.

Q/ Barbados is making good progress in the area of integration and trade. What opportunities are there to promote regional integration in the Caribbean and how can these countries better position themselves within global value chains?

Well, again, going back to tourism, we have to improve transportation in the region. We don’t have a good interregional transportation system now. In Trinidad and Tobago, we are taking a leadership role in that. We are buying and leasing new aircraft, for example, and bringing in some smaller jets for intra-regional travel. We are increasing our fleet with airlines from the Caribbean, etc. The problem with interregional travel is that there are not enough flights available and they are very expensive. Going to Barbados, for example, costs over US$300, and that’s only an hour away by small plane and half an hour by jet. In the US, if you travel that same distance, the cost is much, much less. We also don’t have regional ferry service, for example, unlike other parts of the world with cargo, we don’t have adequate regional cargo service. That’s where we need to develop the Caribbean’s capacity in transportation, both air and sea. And in this way, we will be able to greatly improve our tourism product.

Q/ In the absence of those challenges, inter-island air connectivity, cargo transportation, how disadvantaged is the Caribbean or what is the opportunity? Should we be addressing some of these things to facilitate trade and travel?

We definitely need to address air travel. There are no two ways about it because we are at a disadvantage compared to other regions. In Europe, for example, we can take a train, go from Paris to Brussels, Paris to London, that kind of thing. Easy. We can’t do that in the Caribbean. We have to fly. So, to make the Caribbean an attractive destination for tourists, you have to improve that interregional airlift. Otherwise, it’s a one-stop trip. The person just goes to one place and stays there. It would be better if tourists could move around the Caribbean. That would make it much more attractive.

I just want to say one more thing. The importance of Caricom is that it is a bloc of 14 countries with a presence in practically all the international organizations, like the United Nations, World Trade Organization, etc. And now it is consolidating and moving as a bloc. So, once the heads agree on a policy, most of the time, all 14 countries move in the same direction and vote the same way. An example of how important that is is that Saudi Arabia wants to host the next World Expo and came to the Caribbean to get those 14 votes from the Caribbean. I think they got them all. But they realized how important it was to have these 14 countries. Voting as a bloc makes us very important, much more than our small size.