NASSAU, Bahamas — The government plans to set aside a small percentage of future fiscal surpluses to help fund disaster recovery efforts, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said yesterday, The Tribune reported November 27.
He was speaking in Washington during an Inter-American Development, International Monetary Fund and World Bank conference centred on the theme “building resistance to disasters and climate change in the Caribbean” by improving risk transfer.
Discussing catastrophe insurance solutions, Dr Minnis said: “By being the provider of technical assistance for innovative catastrophe insurance solutions, donors can promote the emergence of innovative risk financing solutions, including index-based insurance products, national and regional catastrophe insurance pools and risk transfer vehicles. (Bodies) such as the IMF can help to subsidise insurance premiums in the context of a country putting together a sound macro-fiscal framework. For example, with the assistance of the IMF and CARTAC, The Bahamas has passed fiscal responsibility legislation which aims to bring discipline to the government’s fiscal agenda with a view to attaining future fiscal surpluses. With this in our tool kit, the government has pledged to set aside two to three percent of these surpluses in a fund that can be used to pay the CCRIF premiums and assist to rebuild after a natural disaster.” http://www.tribune242.com/news/2018/nov/27/minnis-well-put-money-disaster-fund-once-country-h/
