… And policy based loan is forthcoming from I.D.B.
And no trip abroad, particularly to a meeting of the Interamerican Development Bank, would be complete without an account of future financial assistance. During his election campaign, candidate Barrow claimed that upon his taking office, the multilateral funding agencies would welcome him with open arms. According to the P.M., they did not disappoint.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“I.D.B., the twenty-five million dollars for another policy based loan, is pretty much a sure thing. I said to president Moreno yesterday: man mek wi mek it fifty/ I noh know that we wah get fifty, but we will not get less than twenty-five and I’m sure it’s more than twenty-five or I hope it’s more than twenty-five. C.D.B. was there in the margins. I met with the vice president because I was also pushing with the I.D.B. We need to fill that hole created by the demise of the D.F.C. Food prices are going up, fuel prices are going up, Lord man, what are people to do if again as a compensating mechanism, we noh even di provide access to micro credit. They said they heard me, I.D.B., and wah send wah mission down. That’s the thing with these bureaucracies, they have to send wah mission but the C.D.B. vice president, with whom I met, cut straight to the heart of the matter and seh man why we noh think in terms of forming a new company giving over the current function of the D.F.C. to that new company which is just to try and collect on the old loans and have the D.F.C., since it retained core staff and core infrastructure start to move as soon as we can get you the seed money on new lending and with the right safe guards in place. The I.D.B. di tell me bout they want the private sector, and some people from C.D.B. that I spoke to last night are di seh well you know Scotiabank is saying they might be prepared to handle that sort of thing. I noh …”
Ann-Marie Williams
“You don’t want that.”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“Exactly so. I don’t think that is the—poor people noh want go eena—with all due respect to Scotiabank, which is my personal bank, the manager is my personal friend but noh man poor people noh want deal with no bank. We need a D.F.C. They are scared, they are gun shy because of how the last government cocked up the D.F.C. and they figure the same thing will happen, that it will be seen as a slush fund.”
