WASHINGTON, CMC – Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has met with the United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ahead of the inaugural Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity Leaders’ Summit with President Joe Biden that gets underway at the White House on Friday.
Mottley was accompanied by her senior minister, Kerrie Symmonds, and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley at meeting U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Also in the Photo, CARICOM Secretary General Dr. Carla Bartnett and Barbados government senior minister Kerrie Symmonds (Photo PMO)
In June last year, President Biden established the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP) at the Summit of Americas in Los Angeles, California, aimed at creating a path forward to spur economic prosperity, tackle economic inequality across the Western Hemisphere as well as to restore faith in democracy and to foster regional economic integration and good jobs.
The partnership framework consists of five thematic pillars:
- Reinvigorating regional economic institutions and mobilizing investment
- Making more resilient supply chains
- Creating clean energy jobs
- Advancing decarbonization and biodiversity
- Ensuring sustainable and inclusive trade
This meeting on Friday is intended to facilitate conversations to attract responsible investment to fund the supply chains, deepen economic ties in the Americas, and create quality jobs for people in the Americas.
The leaders of Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, the United States, and Uruguay share a vision of an Americas region “which is more open, fair, inclusive, sustainable, and prosperous,” according to Washington.
“Many of us here today share the value of democracy, aspirations of prosperity and regional security, and the belief that deeper economic integration increases competitiveness and greater investments and hope to bring about stronger, more sustainable and inclusive growth,” Yellen said.
“This is a group of countries at the vanguard of exciting change. Several of you are global leaders in green and blue bonds; others are among the first to access financing from the International Monetary Fund’s Resilience and Sustainably Trust,” she said, noting that they were also dealing with mass migration.
She said COVID-19 hit the region “extremely hard,” and there was a need to prepare economies for future shocks.
Before the inaugural partnership meeting, the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) Thursday held a meeting attended by heads of state, business leaders, and key stakeholders from the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean to discuss ways to propel economic growth and integration in the Americas region through new trade and responsible investment opportunities.
The Americas Partnership-IDB Responsible Investment Forum, organized in partnership with the United States government, is the first of its kind and focused on the strategic importance of investing in sustainable infrastructure, clean energy, semiconductors, and medical supplies as priority areas to foster sustainable development in the region.
“The IDB has a mandate to promote regional integration. It’s our comparative advantage, and it’s in our DNA. We are delighted to be the conduit of choice for mobilizing responsible investment for the region,” said Ilan Goldfajn, president of the IDB.
Bilateral trade in goods and services between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean was nearly US$1.5 trillion in 2022. During the last three years, the United States was the largest source of foreign direct investment to the region, accounting for almost 40 percent of total investment flows, on average, per year.
During the meeting, Goldfajn announced new tools within BID for the Americas, a program launched in September to promote business opportunities and closer economic ties between the U.S. and countries in the region.
He said these tools include the U.S. Bid Centre, a dedicated section within the IDB’s ConnectAmericas, where firms can access information about all ongoing procurement processes funded by the IDB in the region.
Build the Americas app: where firms can find information about public procurement opportunities in the infrastructure sector in Latin America and the Caribbean and connect with local companies that provide the goods and services related to each project.
He said the U.S.-LAC Business Community in ConnectAmericas will allow firms in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean to access purchasing and selling announcements and tailor-made content to strengthen business interactions.
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