Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) CEO Zhongjing Wang and his team and Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) President Daniel Best and senior staff discussed the next steps for MCDF-CDB partnership during a bilateral meeting at the bank’s headquarters in Bridgetown, Barbados on 26 January.
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CEO Wang thanked President Best for CDB having completed MCDF Finance Facility accreditation in 2024 and becoming an MCDF Implementing Partner (IP), as well as becoming an International Financial Institution (IFI) member of the MCDF Coordination Committee (CC) in 2025. CEO Wang invited CDB to start tapping MCDF Finance Facility resources for project preparation, capacity building, and information sharing to promote sustainable, high-quality connectivity infrastructure investment in the Caribbean region. He also encouraged CDB to take full advantage of its CC membership by actively participating in its information and knowledge-sharing activities on IFI standards and good practices.
President Best expressed his high expectations for CDB’s partnership with MCDF and said that it is very timely given that Caribbean countries have many ‘shovel-worthy’ project ideas that have not been developed into ’shovel-ready’ project proposals, highlighting the difficulty in securing financing for project preparation. MCDF project preparation grants can help to meet this need, he noted.
President Best added that MCDF can support capacity building to help Caribbean institutions cultivate the expertise needed to prepare connectivity projects, in line with CDB’s new 2026-2035 Strategic Plan, while also help strengthen regional mechanisms for information and knowledge sharing to ensure that country-level lessons are effectively disseminated.
Mr. Ian Durant, CDB’s Vice President for Finance and Corporate Services, said that support from MCDF could play a key role in improving logistics in the region and enabling its economies to move into higher value-added production. Mr. German Deffit, CDB’s Chief Financial Officer, expressed his hope that CDB could work with MCDF, following many good examples of MCDF grant implementation in the region.
President Best, CEO Wang, and their respective staff went on to discuss the process for CDB, as an MCDF Implementing Partner, to submit project proposals for MCDF grant consideration and potential ‘early mover’ projects covering project preparation and capacity building.
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David Hendrickson
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david.hendrickson@themcdf.org
