The US International Development Finance Corporation will step up its investments in the Caribbean as it becomes “extremely active” in the region over the next few years, a senior official said.
“We’re heavily interested,” Caroline Vik, the DFC’s chief policy officer, told reporters during a conference call on Wednesday. “The Caribbean is an incredibly important region. It is our closest neighbor. Frankly, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be extremely active, and that’s what we plan to do.”
Vik spoke following a recent DFC trip to Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Antigua and Barbuda, where she and other agency officials held meetings with government officials, the private sector and, in the case of the last two countries, their prime ministers too.
Created in 2019, DFC is the US government’s international investment arm and was scaled up last year through congressional changes.
Recent DFC projects in the Caribbean have focused on growing the region’s SMEs, including programs with Banco Popular Dominicano and Banco de Reservas in the Dominican Republic and Sygnus Credit Investments in Jamaica.
“The trip really just reinforced our thesis, which is that there’s a lot of great investment opportunities there, a lot of need, and we’re really looking forward to digging in more and hopefully being extremely active over the next few years,” Vik said.
MINERALS, ENERGY
The Caribbean has plenty of opportunities that line up with DFC’s focus on critical mineral supply chains, infrastructure and strengthening key sectors, she said.
That includes ports and airports; digital infrastructure such as telecommunications and data centers; healthcare such as hospitals and pharmaceutical manufacturing; and food and agriculture.
In the energy space, the DFC also sees opportunities in natural gas, geothermal projects, electricity transmission and modernizing grids—all of which Vik said could help the Caribbean meet its energy needs and lower costs.
In its reauthorization last year, lawmakers drastically scaled up the agency’s financial heft. It is now able to take on $205 billion of risk at any given time, up from $60 billion, according to a summary of the law.
‘MORE AMBITIOUS’
Lawmakers also changed financing eligibility requirements to allow for more activity in higher-income countries, including several in the Caribbean.
The DFC is now also “larger, more ambitious and more financially creative than in the past,” Vik said.
The agency offers direct loans and loan guarantees, political risk insurance, grants for project feasibility studies and takes on equity investments—including through a new fund the DFC reauthorization put in place.
The agency established its first Latin America office in 2024 in Brazil and later followed that with an office in the Dominican Republic.