Jamaican Minister Nigel Clarke expresses gratitude towards World Bank President Ajay Banga

Kingston, Jamaica: Dr Nigel Clarke, Minister of Finance of Jamaica, joined Prime Minister of the nation – Andrew Holness, recently welcomed the newly appointed President of the World Bank – Ajay Banga.

During the visit, World Bank President was accompanied by President of the IDB, Ilan Goldfajn.

Minister of Finance Clarke took it to social media and expressed his gratitude towards the World Bank’s delegation. “I was pleased to join PM Andrew Holness for a meeting with visiting President of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, and President of the IDB, Ilan Goldfajn, on their historic visit to Jamaica. We are partnering with both institutions to advance Jamaica’s development,” read his social media post.

He furthermore added that “We intend to continue to leverage Jamaica’s hard-earned macro-economic stability and our credibility with well-resourced multilateral institutions to design and implement policies, programmes and projects that improve people’s lives.”

In another social media post, Minister Clarke further stated that he was pleased to meet with Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank, and his team on his historic visit to Jamaica. He landed in Jamaica only seven business days after taking charge of the World Bank. This is the first time in the 78-year history of the World Bank that its President is visiting Jamaica.

“We partnered with the World Bank to become the first small country in the world to independently sponsor a Catastrophe Bond, which provides fiscal resources in the event of a direct hit from a major hurricane. We tapped private international capital markets in an innovative structure to provide downside protection for Jamaica,” the minister informed through his social media account.

While sharing updates regarding their upcoming collaborations and projects to uplift the infrastructure of Jamaica, the minister stated that jointly the government of Jamaica is working with the private sector arm of the World Bank, the IFC, to develop a train of projects where the plans to attract substantial private capital to help develop Jamaica’s infrastructure, across a number of sectors, improving quality of life.

Furthermore, it noted that the government of Jamaica also hope to partner with the World Bank on transformational projects that leverage information technology and curriculum development to improve education outcomes and in which we achieve the PM’s vision of the establishment of STEM schools.

“We also hope to work partner with the World Bank on several other policies, programmes and projects that improve productivity and well-being,” he stated.