Caribbean Rim Investment Initiative (CRII)

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The Caribbean Rim Investment Initiative (CRII) responds to the needs identified by the OECD to promote a creative and pragmatic cooperative approach between countries of Central America and the Caribbean and international organisations with a view to enhancing investment opportunities in the region.

The origins of the CRII can be traced back to two workshops held in the Dominican Republic in April 2000 and in Curaçao in April 2001, where government officials from Caribbean Basin countries, private sector participants, and representatives of the OECD and other international organizations exchanged views on how these economies could improve their investment climate. The CRII is a concrete and tangible exercise to support Caribbean and Central American countries in their efforts to improve their investment climate, attract increasing flows of investment --both foreign and domestic-- and maximize the benefits that such flows may have in their economies.

Several reasons justify the focus of the CRII on the countries of the Caribbean Basin. In addition to constituting a distinct geographic area, this region comprises more than half of the countries of the Americas and practically all of the smallest economies existing in the Hemisphere. Despite these common elements most of them defined in terms of the other countries of Latin America rather than on intrinsic features of these economies-- the region can be defined as being economically and politically heterogeneous. With countries with just a few thousand inhabitants to others with cities of several million, from societies with relatively high human development achievements to others with the worst living conditions on the continent, from strong democracies to extremely weak political institutions, most of the striking contrasts in the Americas can be found in this region. The fact that the Caribbean Basin represents such a mosaic of economic, political and social diversity explains in part why this region has been less studied relatively to other regions of Latin America. However, this reality also points to the need to promote initiatives specifically tailored to address the complex realities of these countries.

For a full overview of this project, download the CRII brochure.

Business Environment Reports

These studies provide an overall factual assessment of investment conditions existing in each CRII country. They serve as a basis for the countries involved to prepare an investment policy reform agenda, and benefit from any co-operative effort that the CRII and the OECD could provide to assist the country involved in implementing those reforms. To date, studies have been completed for the following countries: