Caribbean round-up: CAF talks with Barbados, Cuba’s emergency reforms and Jamaica’s transit deal
Barbados is in talks with the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean on financing for business, Cuba’s Communist Party has approved market reforms, and Jamaica has signed a transit agreement with the US.
Barbados
The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) and Barbados’ Ministry of Finance have begun talks aimed at improving access to financing for local businesses, focusing on how CAF funding can help companies expand, boost exports and become more competitive.
Finance Minister Ryan Straughn said the private sector was key to growth. “Export-led growth is not a government project with the private sector as cheerleaders on the sideline,” he said. “It requires investment, risk and bold commercial decision-making.”
Straughn said that after years of fiscal reform under the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation Programme (BERT), the focus had shifted to building a more competitive economy. CAF regional manager Stacy Richards-Kennedy said the private sector “cannot be on the margins of development. It has to be at the centre.”
CAF approved US$10.3bn in private-sector financing in 2025, more than half its total approvals, including a US$35mn facility for small and medium-sized businesses in Trinidad and Tobago.
Cuba
The Communist Party of Cuba has approved an emergency economic package introducing major free-market reforms, including expanding private businesses, giving more authority to local governments and state companies, and attracting foreign investment, including from Cubans abroad.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the plan was inspired by the market-oriented reforms of China and Vietnam, while maintaining one-party rule. “Cuba resists heroically and creatively, but has endured for too long a barbaric, undeserved and unbearable punishment,” he said. The proposal will be debated by the National Assembly of People’s Power at a special session.
Power outages have meanwhile sparked protests in several Havana neighbourhoods. US Vice-President JD Vance said Washington was monitoring developments closely and would base its response on Cuba’s actions.
Jamaica
Jamaica and the US have signed a memorandum of understanding allowing third-country nationals transferred from the US to transit through Jamaica on their way to other destinations, including their home countries.
Deputy Prime Minister Horace Chang said the agreement, approved by Cabinet and signed on June 10, does not permit anyone to settle permanently. “The agreed quota is for 25 individuals to be facilitated every two weeks,” he said, adding that Jamaica could refuse anyone at any time.
Chang said the US would cover the costs of the migrants’ initial stay, that anyone wishing to remain would have to apply for asylum through the courts, and that no arrivals would take place until operational details were complete.
