MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — On Monday in Montego Bay, in the context of the Jamaica Investment Forum 2012, the prime minister of Jamaica, Portia Simpson Miller, launched the Caribbean Idea Marketplace initiative (CIM), a business plan competition platform that encourages local and Diaspora entrepreneurs to forge partnerships around innovative projects that will generate employment and economic opportunities in the Caribbean region.
At the launch, Steven Puig, vice president for the private sector and non-sovereign guaranteed operations, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), emphasized the important role the Diaspora plays in development, through remittances, investments and imports. He further underlined the commitment of the IDB in supporting initiatives like CIM in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Jose Jorge Saavedra, executive director of Compete Caribbean, and Melissa Martinez-Nadal, Caribbean Idea Marketplace coordinator, delivered a special presentation on the new initiative.
Compete Caribbean will manage the initiative and will provide US$100,000 grant funding for winning projects. Compete Caribbean is a program that provides technical assistance grants and investment funding to support private sector development in the Caribbean region. The program is jointly funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Kingdom Department of International Development (DFID) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The program supports projects in 15 Caribbean countries in partnership with the Caribbean Development Bank.
