JAMAICA has stepped up its engagements with the World Bank Group’s private financing arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC), as the Government seeks to leverage the organisation’s “experience and expertise” in raising funds to finance various infrastructure projects in the island.

Emmanuel Nyirinkindi, the IFC’s vice-president of cross-cutting solutions, was in the island with a delegation from the financier’s headquarters in Washington, DC at the end of May to discuss the possibilities.

“Our priority is really to focus on being the key partner that the Government wants us to be. The Government will define which of the areas that they want us to provide transaction structuring expertise as we create public-private partnerships. The Government sets the priority and then the IFC helps them,” Nyirinkindi told the Jamaica Observer in an interview ahead of discussions with local officials about projects to pursue.

“Transportation is the main area being looked at now,” he added. “The emphasis right now is on roads. We are doing three priority roads and the Government will look to see if there are more to be done.”

The roads which Nyirinkindi refers to is North Coast Highway Project which the Government last year said it will undertake. The project, which covers the proposed widening on 60 km of the highway from Seacastles in St James to Mammee Bay in St Ann, could cost between US$600 million ($93 billion) and US$800 million ($120 billion). As part of this engagement, IFC is committed to providing transaction advisory services to the Government of Jamaica and structuring and implementing a competitive tender process to mobilise a private operator that will design, build, finance, and operate three brownfield roads.

However, roads are not the only projects that are being pursued.

“As the World Bank Group, we did the country private sector diagnostic that actually looks at where the Government wants to go by 2030, [and] where we found strong opportunities, and the Government may want to look at that more, is in the agricultural sector and also in outsourcing. So the question is whether they want to go PPP [with those projects or not], but I think these are core areas in which the private sector would come in.”

Nyirinkindi declined to go beyond what has been publicly said already, arguing that it is better for the Government to make the announcements.

But he told Caribbean Business Report that with the current stability in the economy, the time is ripe to pursue various projects that will enhance growth in the future. He said from the discussions the IFC had with the Government, the hope is to “achieve a clear articulated programme from the Government, what they want to do and where they need IFCs help and expertise to bring about quick and successful implementation.”

He added: “We have a sense of what would be the most ready projects and a sense of what needs to get done with them and we have a total commitment to providing the best expertise to allow the Government to achieve its aims.”

He argued that countries like Jamaica, which desire improved infrastructure, but do not have the money to execute on them.

“We’ve been working with governments, both local and state governments in whatever form they are across the globe. We’ve worked in about 56 countries since 2004 and done about 173 of these projects on infrastructure, across the world and these have led to about $46 billion in investments. So if you look at that, you will see the kind of resources that we can bring into Jamaica,” he added.

Nyirinkindi said that for Jamaica, the emphasis is to build infrastructure that is designed to be resilient in the face of climate change issues.

“So, if you think about infrastructure like a road for a 20-year concession, the Government would have to ensure that they are designed right to ensure they last.”

As part of another PPP engagement, in 2016 IFC was the transaction advisor for the successful 25-year concession of the Norman Manley Airport in Kingston.

In the last 10 years, IFC has invested US$167 million in Jamaica to boost the role of the private sector and foster productivity, inclusion, and sustainability. The institution’s current portfolio includes investments in the financial and technology sectors. On the advisory services and upstream side, IFC is working on ICT, financial inclusion, and agriculture in addition to the PPP work.