BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) says it is strengthening its collaboration with the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) to support the development of a more robust pipeline of Caribbean investment opportunities and improve connections between regional projects and prospective investors.

The CDB said that the collaboration reflects the growing importance of partnerships in mobilising capital, strengthening project readiness and advancing sustainable private-sector development across the region.

The region’s premier financial institution said that the collaboration also aligns with the spirit of SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals, highlighted during the recently concluded Global Goals Week.

“The Caribbean’s development ambitions require greater mobilisation of private capital and stronger connections between credible investment opportunities and the investors seeking them,” said CDB President, Daniel Best.

“Through this partnership with Caribbean Export, we are supporting a more coordinated approach to developing the region’s investment pipeline and creating pathways for Caribbean enterprises and projects to access the capital and partnerships they need to grow,” he added.

Caribbean Export’s Executive Director, Dr Damie Sinanan, said the collaboration reflects the agency’s wider ambition for the Caribbean Investment Forum (CIF) to be held October 5-7, to serve as more than an annual event.

“Our objective has always been to build an investment platform that supports projects before, during and after the forum. CDB’s support strengthens our ability to engage investors in a targeted way, learn from those interactions and maintain momentum with project owners as opportunities progress,” Sinanan added.

The partnership will be activated at the CIF where investors will engage directly with a curated pipeline of Caribbean opportunities through project showcases, targeted matchmaking and the CIF Deal Room.

As part of the collaboration, CDB has approved support through its PROPEL programme to strengthen investor engagement around projects developed through the CIF. The CDB said that the initiative will help Caribbean Export support project owners with investor readiness, targeted outreach, matchmaking and structured follow-up with prospective investors.

The work builds on a CIF pipeline developed since CIF’s inception in 2022 of approximately 30 projects from 11 CARIFORUM countries, representing more than US$172 million in investment opportunities, and is intended to help promising projects progress beyond presentation towards sustained engagement with potential sources of capital.

Republic Bank, the Caribbean’s only indigenous commercial bank and a supporter of CIF since its inception, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are platinum sponsors of the forum.

The IDB partnership builds on a three-year memorandum of understanding signed with Caribbean Export at CIF 2025 to advance sustainable investment and project development through the ONE Caribbean Project Preparation Coordination Mechanism (PPCM), strengthening the pipeline of well-prepared, market-ready projects capable of attracting regional and international financing.

They join CIF’s principal partners, the government of Barbados, as host country, and the European Union under its Global Gateway initiative. Republic Bank and the IDB will also participate in the programme, bringing regional banking and development finance perspectives to discussions on investment and growth across the Caribbean.

At this year’s forum, eight featured projects are seeking more than US$39 million in combined investment across digital transformation, sustainable agriculture, green economy transition, and logistics and transportation. Each has been vetted and qualified by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and will be available for direct investor meetings at CIF 2026.