The Bahamas, IDB sign US$612,000 grant for sustainable fiscal policy

Financing from the Japan Special Fund at the IDB

NASSAU, Bahamas - The Bahamas Minister of State, Ministry of Finance, the Honourable Zhivargo Laing, and the Inter-American Development Bank Representative, Astrid Wynter, today signed a US$612,000 technical cooperation grant to support strengthening the country’s fiscal policy. 

These resources were provided by the Japan Special Fund at the IDB and the Ambassador of Japan to The Bahamas, His Excellency Hiroshi Yamaguchi, signed the documents as witness of honor. 

Ambassador Yamaguchi expressed: “This is an exceptional moment for Japan to indirectly extend a technical cooperation through the Japan Special Fund of the IDB to The Bahamas. I hope that this project exceeding US$600,000.00 will serve to strengthen the over-all friendship between the peoples and the governments of Japan and The Bahamas.” 

“The Government of The Bahamas is developing a central revenue administration based on international practices to improve tax administration and to boost revenues,” said Wynter. “The IDB is pleased to support the Government in this process to achieve fiscal sustainability in the short and medium term.” 

“The program will improve the capacity of the tax administration and debt management areas,” said IDB Project Team Leader Gerardo Reyes-Tagle. “It will strengthen the property tax administration system and will help the Government handle fiscal risks and debt portfolio management more effectively.” 

The program will consist of the following components: tax administration strengthening, a comprehensive multi-year action plan for the property tax system, an in-depth analysis of quality of expenditure, and an assessment of fiscal risks in the areas of health and pensions and specifically handling contingent liabilities on pension funds and public enterprises. The activities will also include the design and implementation of a multi-year debt strategy program. Monitoring and evaluation will take place throughout the program. 

The Ministry of Finance will be the main entity responsible for the project. The estimated total cost of the program is US$765,000, with a local counterpart financing of US$153,000.

The Japan Special Fund was established in 1988 to finance untied, non-reimbursable technical cooperation in all IDB borrowing member countries. This is one of the largest trust funds at the Bank, and supports the preparation and implementation of IDB projects, as well as stand-alone projects in line with the Bank's Country Strategy with each of the borrowing member countries.