Above: the Atlantis Resort

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The second annual Caribbean Economic Policy Forum will be hosted at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas next week.

The conference, which takes place Sept. 19-20, is being organized by the Bahamian Ministry of Finance and the Inter-American Development Bank, in conjunction with the Caribbean Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.

This year’s summit is being held under the theme “Building Growth into the Caribbean Sustainability Agenda — a Concerted Approach.”

It will cover areas such as stimulating the private sector, mitigating vulnerability to natural disasters and reducing public sector debt, among others.

“The focus continues to be on how the international financial institutions can enhance support they provide in particular to small and highly-vulnerable income countries, both in terms of tailoring policy advice as well as how they intervene with direct assistance when small middle-income countries encounter economic crises,” said Michael Halkitis, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance.

The first edition of the conference was held last year in Trinidad and Tobago.