Above: Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow visited Washington this week and met with officials at the Inter-American Development Bank.

Barrow held talks with IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno to discuss “Belize’s relationship with the bank and priority areas of collaboration,” according to a statement from the IDB.

The two sides discussed the bank’s newly-approved country strategy with Belize, which will cover the IDB’s work in Belize over the next four years.

The bank said the strategy “aims to support the Government of Belize in improving public expenditure efficiency and effectiveness and promoting private sector development and sustainable export-led growth, by concentrating on four priority areas: education,tourism, transport and trade and tax policy.”

The two sides additionally discussed recent economic developments in the country, tourism, agriculture and the bank’s 2014 lending programme with Belize.

The IDB has been supporting projects in Belize since the country joined the bank as a borrowing member in 1992.

The IDB’s current portfolio in Belize includes five loans totaling $38 million.