Caribbean Development Bank gives Haiti $2.5 million for disaster insurance

Saint John, October 27, 2014 (EFE).- The Caribbean Development Bank will grant Haiti $2.57 million to cover Port-au-Prince's disaster-insurance premium for the 12-month period ending May 31, 2015.

"While it is recognized that the payment of premiums is a recurrent expenditure and should normally be provided for in national budgets, the government of Haiti is currently unable to pay for the insurance because of current social, economic and fiscal challenges," CDB communications officer Collin Cunningham told Efe last Friday.

In 2013, the CDB gave Haiti the same amount to cover the annual premium to the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, or CCRIF.

"On behalf of the Haitian government and Haitian people I thank CDB for agreeing to make this payment to the CCRIF. This will ensure that the government is covered in the event the country is hit by a natural disaster during the coverage period," Hancy Pierre-Louis, Haiti's representative on the bank's board, said in a press release.

The CCRIF is owned and operated by the region's governments. It is designed to limit the financial impact of catastrophic hurricanes and earthquakes by quickly providing short-term liquidity when a policy is triggered.

Also, the CDB said it has approved an additional $4.5 million loan to Belize to continue the Road Safety Project.

The original loan of $7.2 million was approved in 2012 to assist the government's initiative of reduction of deaths and serious injuries associated with traffic accidents.

The Caribbean Development Bank is a regional financial institution established in 1970 for the purpose of contributing to the harmonious economic growth and development of the member countries.

CDB members are Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Barbados; Belize; the British Virgin Islands; the Cayman Islands; Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Haiti; Jamaica; Montserrat; St. Kitts and Nevis; St. Lucia; St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Suriname; the Bahamas; Trinidad and Tobago; and the Turks and Caicos Islands.