[ISL] "Burnt Out Caribbean Pirate Castle Taps Expanding China for Funds"

[rfmcdonald]

Bloomberg's Colin Simpson examines how China is becoming a major lender in Latin america and the Caribbean, starting from the example of Barbados.

A now ruined Caribbean castle built by a 19th century buccaneer is among the latest beneficiaries of China’s increasing push to offer development finance around the world.

The burnt-out shell of Sam Lord’s Castle stands on a stretch of shoreline on the island nation of Barbados. The former British colony is looking to China as an alternative source of financing because its status as a middle-income country doesn’t qualify it for funding on preferential terms from international development organizations.

It’s not alone: figures from the Inter-American Dialogue, a U.S.-based policy analysis center, and Boston University show China provided more financing to Latin America in 2015 than the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank combined. Meantime, China remains a major investor in Africa and has started the $100 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which may announce its first batch of investments midyear.

Barbados’s first major financing deal with China was signed late last year -- a $170 million loan to renovate the castle built by pirate Sam Lord. He amassed a fortune by plundering ships that became trapped on coral reefs near his estate.

"When President Xi Jinping of China visited the Caribbean in 2013 one of the things he promised was $3 billion in loans and concessional financing," Chelston Brathwaite, Barbados’s ambassador to China, said in a phone interview. "Our country seeks to participate in this offer and see how we can capture some of these funds for infrastructure development in order to promote economic activity in our country."