Interview with Hon. Dr. Irving McIntyre, Minister for Finance Economic Development, Climate Resilience and Social Security, Dominica

11 Jul Interview with Hon. Dr. Irving McIntyre, Minister for Finance Economic Development, Climate Resilience and Social Security, Dominica

How would you assess Dominica’s current fiscal position amidst global and economic challenges and what strategies are in place to maintain or improve this position?

Dominica’s current fiscal position is improving. We’ve had some hard times, but we are improving. However, there are still vulnerabilities to exogenous economic shocks and adverse weather conditions. Recent economic developments have created some physical stress, price increases and supply chain issues. Nonetheless, we made some strides. Our primary balance improved in the fiscal year 2022/2023 by about 6% of GDP. We made some progress and we are heading in the right direction. It’s not exactly where we want to be at the moment, nonetheless, the trends are looking in a positive direction.

Could you highlight some of your biggest achievements and benefits since you installed the CBI program in Dominica?

There are numerous benefits. A majority of our housing projects are financed by the CBI program. Even before this, when I was the Minister of Health, we built almost 12 state-of-the-art climate, resilient health centers, which are actually polyclinics. We also built a brand new state-of-the-art hospital in the northeastern part of the country. That cost us over $50 million. Then we have a massive housing program. Most of these housing programs for climate resilient houses have been financed under the CBI program as well.  There are so many things that have come from the CBI program. It is remarkable and it has done well, it means a lot to us and we’re grateful that we have this form of revenue that propels our development.

In the latest budget, what are the priorities identified for economic development, climate, resilience and social security and how do these align with the nation’s long-term goals?

We would like agriculture to contribute $700 million to our GDP. Within the smaller islands of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, Dominica might be the only country that might have a double figure in terms of GDP contribution from agriculture. We’re putting quite a few things in place. For instance, in agriculture, for us to get to this level we are commissioning the Agricultural Science Building in the north of the island, where we have a tissue culture lab. In this lab, we will be able to produce many more disease-free seedlings with higher yields as well. All that is part of driving this agenda of having $700 million as part of our GDP.

A major part is trying to have technology be part of this transition and this transformation. In today’s climate conditions with the dry seasons, the rainy seasons and the floods, open farming is a risky and vulnerable business. That’s where we need to have the greenhouse. That’s where we need to have the technologies and hydroponics. What we’re trying to do is a land audit, so we can also find out the amount of government land available, in terms of getting these greenhouses, the proper irrigation and proper technology. That’s an important part of how technology will drive the agriculture industry for one, or the Science and Technology Building or getting the land audit and getting our youth back into agriculture.  Even presently we have quite a few different programs under the agriculture language program. We are financed by the World Bank for these. That’s part of trying to drive agriculture to where we wanted to get to contribute that much to GDP.

Another area that we are focusing a lot on is that we started our international airport. This is going to be a major change for us. Not only in terms of the second point, which was tourism, but it will also be in terms of agriculture. For instance, a farmer harvests his crops in the morning in Dominica, with an international airport your produce might likely be in Miami by the afternoon. It’s more than just bringing tourists from overseas, it’s something that’s going to drive the economy even besides the normal tourism. Obviously, with an international airport, tourism becomes a major thing because you get lots of tourists coming in and when you have tourists coming in, you’re talking about bus drivers, taxi drivers, vendors and performers. It just trickles down through the economy.

In terms of the tourism industry, different 5-star hotels have been constructed now and the construction of the longest cable car in the world is ongoing. You might get 2,000 cruise ship visitors coming in a day and they have limited time. With the cable car, which is just maybe half an hour, you could see the second-largest Boiling Lake in the world.

We also have our geothermal plant. The construction of our geothermal plant will begin this year and it will provide 10 megawatts of geothermal energy. Our intention is that by 2030, this little island called Dominica will be totally on renewable energy. During the wetter seasons, we have almost 6 megawatts of hydroelectricity which we’ve had for decades. If you can add that 10 megawatts of the geothermal plant, we would be approaching that level where we can be totally off fossil fuel. That is a perfect alignment as we want to be a climate-resilient country by 2030 as well.

We are also promoting solar panels for houses and businesses. You can see solar panels in the major businesses in town. But Dominica is a place where, every now and then, you’re going to get 2-3 days without sunlight. We encourage solar, but we wouldn’t emphasize it. Geothermal is there. From a government point of view, geothermal is maybe more forward.

What measures are being taken to attract domestic and foreign investment, particularly in key sectors for this economic diversification? How can you invite US investors?

We’ve been responsible in terms of the different things that we’ve put together. For instance, we have quite a few different concessions that we give to investors when they come, which is very important for us. Political stability means a lot to us. No investor wants to come to a place that’s not politically stable. We can impress on them our digital approach and our technology approach to show that this is a modern infrastructure economy. Whether it’s political stability, the concessions that we offer, technology, digitalization, the modern economic structure, or even just the inhabitants of the country.

We’ve been having some pretty good results even for local investors. For instance, at Dominica Agricultural Industrial & Development Bank (AID Bank), we put $30 million for MSMEs at concessional rates. The interests that we charge on them are minimal. All that is part of the modern economic infrastructure and the financial unit must be up to the standard in terms of monitoring, etc.

One of the ministerial departments of diaspora affairs. We have set up special units that they can get to, to make them invest directly as well if they want to return home and what’s available. We’ve been very actively heading after our diaspora, telling them the different benefits that are available now. We try our best to let them understand that this is the best time to come home with all these things happening. Our two biggest programs, the international airport and the building of the geothermal plant, are ongoing. Hopefully, the geothermal plan is to be completed by next year. That would be excellent for us. In addition to this geothermal plant, we are also building a transmission line that will be resilient and there will be one above ground and one underground. The gentleman in charge of this geothermal plant is from the diaspora. Secondly, the CEO building the International Airport is also from the diaspora. They were both settled in the US. They came home and they are the ones in charge of these major projects. So as for opportunities at home, there are lots of opportunities. That is where we encourage them to come home. There is work for you and you can be part of that development program.

I’m trying to convince the diaspora that it is time to come home and play a part in the development of this country to contribute. They mean a lot to us. Let alone from the remittances that we get of almost 10% of the economy, but also for their ideas and thoughts. The world has become so open, they have their ideas and their thoughts and they’ve been living in developed countries, so come home and share your experiences and let’s put it together forward in local stuff and see what we can do together.

How did you envision leveraging international partnerships and initiatives to bolster Dominica’s efforts towards climate resilience and sustainable economic development?

We have 2 major guiding documents: the National Resilience Development Strategy (NRDS) and the Climate Resilience Response Plan (CRRP). These are the documents that are riddled with resilience and sustainability.

Having said this, an issue is climate financing. This has been a bit of a problem. But under my Ministry, we have the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Quite a few different things are financed through the GCF but we have to step up and it’s not easy because sometimes you may get lots of pledges but as to whether this pledge is manifested into the deliverables, it takes time. So we have an aggressive approach to look for climate financing. Whoever is going to do the financing wants to know that you have a plan and we recognized this long ago.

In terms of resilience, we’ve taken it to the next level. For instance, even from a fiscal point of view, we have a vulnerability fund where every month we put half a million dollars capitalized from our CBI program just in case there was to be some climatic event that there’s something that we can fall back on. Apart from that, in terms of climate resilience, we have the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CRIF) and we’ve increased our contribution to it just in case there’s some event. We also have Parametric Insurance run through the credit unions and this is specifically almost used by the farmers.

So far, we’ve built 1,500 resilient homes at no cost to the citizens of this country. With all of this, we still look after the vulnerable, which means a lot to us. The climate resilience agenda we’ve been on has worked pretty well. In 2015 there was a tropical storm, Erica and we lost an entire village and there were quite a few deaths. With our Prime Minister’s vision, we transferred all these people to a new housing area, to resilient housing and when Hurricane Maria came in 2017, none of these houses were damaged.

How would you compare the socio-economic landscape of Dominica compared to your neighbors?

What I would want is for your readers to understand that what we’re doing now is part of the whole platform that we’re laying on. If you were to come to Dominica now and you look around, you’d realize that this is a platform that we’re laying down in terms of the modern economic infrastructure, whether it is the physical infrastructure, whether it is in terms of finance. For instance, in health, there are quite a few different things that we put together. Even in our education system, the way we design our classrooms, even the colors in our classrooms, for mental capacity and all the different things. It’s a work in progress. That’s the picture we want to get across to you.

We don’t just want an international airport and then tourists come and they spend money. it’s more than this. If you were to come to Dominica now and you go to any little normal village you don’t see wooden houses, unlike other islands where you might see many wooden houses in their villages. We moved away from this. When you look at the comfort level of the individual and the safety of the individual, you just realize that this young fellow has a climate-resilient home, in terms of education he is being well taken care of, in terms of health he is being well taken care of, in terms of the finances available, the AID Bank. There are all those little things you put together and then you can see it. That’s how we’re going to move forward. If anything out of this is to see that what we laid on is a solid foundation.

In the OECS we have the best road network. If you talk about housing stock in the OECS, we have the best housing stock. We might not have the most beautiful city; I’ll be very honest. But we’re on the verge of getting our city to where we want it to be. We have $40 million that we’re going to invest in just the beautification of our city. We’ve almost completed all roads, all hospitals, health centers, schools and all of that geothermal. We just knocked off all of these main things,and now it’s just prosperity time.

What would be your final message for the readers of the USA Today?

We have to see the world belonging to all of us. We have to own it. We have to play our part to make it a better place for us and for our children. That’s what I want everybody to understand and the message I want to get across. This belongs to us, this is ours and if we want to be here and enjoy it and for our kids to enjoy it, we have to play our part. Everybody sees our economic infrastructure. But everybody has to play their part. There must be ownership. You cannot leave it to any one person. We can all play our part. Let’s leave it a better place than how we met it.