NEARLY three years after the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) declared itself open for business in Jamaica, the agency says it is now seeking to build a pipeline capable of delivering several projects within the next two years — but none of the opportunities discussed during its latest visit is yet sufficiently advanced for execution.

DFC Chief Policy Officer Caroline Vik said the US Government’s international investment arm emerged from meetings with the Jamaican Government and private sector leaders with a “long list of interesting projects” spanning ports, airports, hospitals, energy, telecommunications, and post-Hurricane Melissa reconstruction.

“My goal here is to come out of this trip and the meetings that follow with several projects that we can execute on over the next couple of years,” Vik told the Jamaica Observer at the end of a series of meetings following her visit to the island last week.

The timeline represents the clearest indication yet of when Jamaica might begin seeing tangible results from DFC’s courtship. During a December 2023 visit, then chief executive Scott Nathan said the agency was not merely gauging interest and wanted Jamaican businesses to bring forward projects, but no local investment was announced.

Vik said the latest discussions had moved to identifying specific projects which DFC’s investment team will now examine.

“Our conversations with the Government are at a pretty high level. Where do they focus by sector? And then what are the major projects that they want to execute?” she said.

“Many of those sound very aligned with our priorities as well. One of the things that we’ll do following this trip is have our investment professionals dig into the numbers on every specific project, go through the due diligence process and see what the financial profile looks like.”

Asked whether any project appeared close to execution, Vik said it was too early to tell.

“I hope so, but I don’t know from our initial conversations,” she said.

Ports, airports, hospitals, energy and telecommunications were among the main sectors raised during the meetings.

Vik said DFC has US$205 billion available for deployment and can provide debt, equity, political-risk insurance, loan guarantees and project development funding.

The agency does not provide grants. It invests alongside the private sector in commercially viable projects which also support US foreign-policy objectives.

“You should think of us as halfway between a traditional development finance institution and a sovereign wealth fund — what our CEO calls a strategic investment fund,” Vik said.

DFC’s global priorities include energy, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, financial technology and critical infrastructure such as ports, airports, telecommunications networks, fibre, subsea cables, and data centres.

Vik said the agency would concentrate on areas where those priorities overlap with Jamaica’s own plans.

A section of Kingston’s port infrastructure. Ports are among the projects being examined as the US International Development Finance Corporation seeks to build an investment pipeline in Jamaica. 

“We’re here in Jamaica to speak with the Government, understand their investment priorities, and where they intersect with our priorities is where we’ll focus our efforts,” she said.

Post-Hurricane Melissa reconstruction was also discussed.

Vik said DFC had met with the leadership of the National Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (NaRRA) and Ambassador Antony Anderson and would follow up as projects are developed.

“I think we’re really interested in participating in the reconstruction,” she said.

“We’ll be following up on the details of many of those projects as they flesh them out.”

She did not identify any reconstruction project under consideration or say what form DFC support could take.

Vik also encouraged Jamaican businesses to contact DFC before projects are fully developed.

“Reach out to us. Let’s begin the conversation,” she said.

“There’s a lot we can do together. Better to be in touch early as we work through it. We can be a thought partner. We can connect you with the best businesses to work with, as well as be your financing partner.”

She said companies should not wait until every aspect of a project has been settled.

“Don’t be your own gating function. Just reach out,” Vik said.

“If there’s an important project in Jamaica, we want to try to be helpful. The more we can engage, the better.”

Vik avoided directly answering questions about whether DFC’s investments form part of Washington’s wider strategic competition with China.

“Our focus is on where the Jamaican Government’s priorities intersect with our Government’s priorities, and that’s where we’ll focus our investments,” she said.

DFC will now begin examining the projects raised during the visit, but Vik said it remains too early to say which, if any, could move first.