Most Caribbean businesses that seek financing never clear due diligence. The reason is rarely a pure shortage of capital.

Is the region’s biggest challenge a financing gap — or a shortage of investment-ready enterprises?

Joseph Cox speaks with Dr Vishnu Doerga, Chairman of ActionINVEST Caribbean, about the structural weaknesses that keep too many micro and small businesses stuck in survival mode. Drawing on years of assessing enterprises for financing, he explains why capital alone cannot fix gaps in financial records, governance, management systems and business models.

What actually makes a business bankable? Why do promising firms fail basic due diligence? And what must change if Caribbean enterprises are to generate the margins needed to grow and compete?

Also in this episode: Jamaica’s planned phase-out of cheques by 2028, questions over Jamaica’s continued shareholding in Caribbean Airlines, and the latest economic signals from across the region and global markets.

⏱️ CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome to Caribbean Business Review

02:13 Opening Commentary | The CAL Audit Fiasco

04:30 This Week's Headlines

05:07 CBR Briefing | Jamaica’s Cheque Phase-Out

11:10 Market Brief | 90 Seconds

12:42 Dr Vishnu Doerga | Interview Preview

13:12 Takes Cash to Care – Why Access to Finance May not be the Real Problem

49:38 Market Watch

52:46 Global Pulse

55:52 The Playbook & Closing

Caribbean Business Review — independent analysis of theeconomic and business developments shaping the Caribbean.

Who controls what Caribbean audiences see—and whocaptures the value when they watch?

The Caribbean media landscape is being transformed.Broadcasting once meant reaching the widest possible audience. Today, algorithms, streaming platforms, social media and increasingly sophisticated targeting allow content and advertising to find particular consumers withextraordinary precision.

But greater precision raises a bigger question: asCaribbean media becomes better at finding consumers, is it becoming less effective at reaching citizens?

This week on Caribbean Business Review, Joseph Coxsits down with Kiran Maharaj, President and Co-Founder of the Media Institute of the Caribbean and Managing Director of Caribbean Lifestyle Communications, for a wide-ranging conversation about the struggle for control of the Caribbean audience.

They examine the shift from broadcasting to narrowcasting,the growing influence of algorithms and artificial intelligence, changing advertising models, audience fragmentation and the increasing power of global technology platforms over how Caribbean content is discovered and distributed.

But this is also a conversation about money and survival.

If Caribbean media organisations create the content, employthe journalists and finance the production—but global platforms increasingly control distribution and capture advertising value—who really owns therelationship with the audience?

And as traditional media business models come underpressure, can subscriptions, specialist content and smaller but more valuable audiences provide a sustainable alternative? Or does the commercial logic ofnarrowcasting risk weakening the common information space that broadcasting historically provided?

Maharaj also brings the perspective of a media entrepreneur and Caribbean business leader to a deeper question: what must Caribbean media become if it is to remain commercially viable without surrendering its public-interest role?

Also in this episode:

US Diesel Export Curbs — Another Caribbean Energy Shock?
The Caribbean remains heavily exposed to imported fuel, particularly supplies originating from the US Gulf Coast. With US diesel export restrictions being discussed, CBR examines what even a reduction in available supply could meanfor electricity, transportation, tourism, agriculture and production costs across the region.

Sandals × Royal Caribbean — Investment or GreaterLeakage?
A proposed US$3 billion investment for a 50% stake in Sandals and Beaches could bring together two of the Caribbean's most powerful tourism ecosystems:cruise and resort. But greater integration also raises a fundamental development question—will more tourism investment translate into greater Caribbean value capture, or could vertically integrated tourism increaseeconomic leakage?

From who controls the audience, to who controlsenergy supply, to who captures the value from Caribbean tourism, Episode 13 examines how changing structures of power are reshaping the region's economic landscape.

⏱️ CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome to Caribbean Business Review

02:30 Opening Commentary | Sandals × Royal Caribbean: What Does the Deal Mean?

03:56 This Week's Headlines

04:33 CBR Briefing | US Diesel Export Curbs: The Caribbean Exposure

09:58 Market Brief | 90 Seconds

12:15 Kiran Maharaj | Interview Preview

12:48 Who Controls what the Caribbean Sees? The Future of Caribbean Media

51:19 Market Watch

54:26 Global Pulse

57:47 The Playbook & Closing

Knowledge is Strength. Information is Power.

Caribbean Business Review — independent analysis of theforces shaping Caribbean business, economics, policy and risk.

Can Jamaica move beyond transshipment and enclave production to build an economy that creates more value at home?

In this episode of Caribbean Business Review, former Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Anthony Hylton makes the case for a National Industrial Policy for Jamaica and examines what genuine industrial transformation would require.

The conversation goes beyond manufacturing. We explore how logistics, special economic zones, foreign investment, energy, skills, technology, tourism, agro-processing and global services could be connected to a deeper domestic production strategy.

We also examine a critical constraint: policy continuity. Industrial transformation takes longer than an electoral cycle. Can Jamaica build a national production strategy durable enough to survive changes of government and deliver measurable results?

Also in this episode:

Market Watch — Jamaica inflation, fiscal execution and BPO fraud; Guyana’s 33.3% growth; Caribbean tourism, remittances and investment.

Global Pulse — US$100-plus oil, global interest rates, China’s economy, US-Canada trade tensions and Europe’s widening climate-insurance gap.

CBR Briefing — Is Jamaica’s post-Hurricane Melissa recovery really demonstrating a reconstruction multiplier?

Caribbean Business Review — independent analysis of the markets, policies and economic forces shaping the Caribbean.

Knowledge is Strength. Information is Power.

The Caribbean has no shortage of entrepreneurs. But why do so few businesses make the transition from start-up to scalable enterprise?

In this episode of Caribbean Business Review, Joseph Cox sits down with Harold Davis, Deputy CEO of the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC), to examine one of the Caribbean's most persistent development challenges: turning entrepreneurial activity into durable, productive and scalable businesses.

The conversation challenges the assumption that every small business must grow to be successful. But where entrepreneurs do want to scale, Davis explains why ambition alone is not enough.

They explore why access to finance is often really a financing-match problem; why start-ups need capital appropriate to their stage of development; and why governance, financial records, compliance and repeatable operating systems become the hidden infrastructure of business growth.

The discussion also examines why export readiness begins long before a business enters an overseas market, whether Caribbean economies have developed a stronger start-up culture than scale-up ecosystem, and what policymakers and business-support institutions must do differently if more firms are to grow beyond their founders.

Also in Episode 11:

Another CARICOM unforced error? Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt says Secretary-General Dr Carla Barnett “will continue,” raising a deeper question about whether Trinidad and Tobago's objection can carry meaningful consequence if the political outcome has effectively been determined before the agreed CCJ advisory opinion has even been sought.

CBI diplomatic blunder? With the European Union's September assessment of five OECS Citizenship by Investment programmes now upon the region, CBR asks whether CARICOM has allowed a critical diplomatic window to narrow.

Three different issues. One underlying question: are Caribbean systems and institutions delivering the outcomes we need?

Caribbean Business Review — Season 4, Episode 11

Topics: Caribbean business, entrepreneurship, MSMEs, small business growth, business scaling, start-ups, enterprise development, SME finance, export readiness, JBDC, Jamaica business, Caribbean economy, CARICOM, regional integration, Citizenship by Investment, CBI, European Union.

Is market access enough to transform Caribbean trade? As tariffs, geopolitical tensions and a weakening multilateral trading system reshape global commerce, the Caribbean faces a deeper challenge: building the productive capacity to compete.

International trade expert Alicia Nicholls, Founder of Caribbean Trade Law and Development and Fellow at the Shridath Ramphal Centre, UWI, joins Joseph Cox to examine the future of Caribbean trade policy, CARICOM and regional economic integration.

The discussion explores why decades of trade preferences have not produced their full potential; how persistent intra-regional non-tariff barriers constrain Caribbean commerce; and why production, services, industrial policy, AI, green technology and stronger regional trade must become central to the Caribbean's economic strategy.

At its core is the question of economic agency: can small Caribbean states build the productive capacity and regional cohesion needed to exercise greater influence in an increasingly fragmented and transactional global economy?

Also in this episode:

CBR Briefing — Disinformation, Free Expression and the Caribbean's Legislative Dilemma. As AI makes fabricated content increasingly convincing and scalable, we examine how Caribbean governments can confront deliberate disinformation through education, enforcement, platform accountability and targeted legislation—without undermining legitimate expression.

The Cost of Getting Here. Rising airfares, constrained airline capacity and volatile jet-fuel prices are creating another potential vulnerability for tourism-dependent Caribbean economies. We examine why the cost of reaching the Caribbean is not simply a tourism issue, but increasingly a question of competitiveness and macroeconomic resilience.

Market Brief tracks Jamaica's widening fiscal deficit and 18% decline in tourism earnings, record Cayman stay-over tourism, Bahamas inflation and import growth, Trinidad and Tobago's improved Moody's outlook, Grenada's additional public spending, Guyana's expanding role in regional food security and developments across Caribbean financial markets.

Global Pulse examines rising oil and gas prices, diverging US and Canadian labour markets, widening trade imbalances, resilient Asian growth, China's accelerating solar transition and changing global monetary and financial conditions.

Caribbean Business Review delivers independent analysis of Caribbean economics, business, markets, trade, public policy, governance and strategic risk.

Knowledge is Strength. Information is Power.

When does a difficult workplace become a toxic one—and how do you know when it’s time to walk?

In this episode of Caribbean Business Review, Joseph Cox sits down with Jacquie Abram, Workplace Discrimination Consultant and author, for a candid conversation about how workplace toxicity develops—and why the earliest warning signs can be surprisingly easy to explain away.

The training that never comes. Exclusion from meetings. Responsibilities that quietly change. Scrutiny that intensifies. Individually, each may seem insignificant. Collectively, they may reveal a pattern.

Abram discusses the personal and professional consequences of a toxic workplace, why documentation can change the balance of power, what employees need to understand about HR when things go wrong, and how to protect your career before the damage becomes lasting.

Also in Episode 9:

→ Concentrated Banking, Constrained Competition — Caribbean banks may be stable and profitable, but are concentrated markets, opaque pricing and high switching costs weakening competition?

→ CARICOM: Clarity or Conflict? — as questions continue over the Secretary-General's reappointment process, CBR examines why a request for procedural certainty should not become another source of regional division.

Plus Market Watch and Global Pulse, with the developments shaping Caribbean markets, policy and the global economy.

Caribbean Business Review — executive analysis of the forces shaping Caribbean business, markets, policy and institutions.

Can trust in the Caribbean Court of Justice be rebuilt after the controversy surrounding its internal judicial processes?

In this episode of Caribbean Business Review, Joseph Cox speaks with Marlene Malahoo Forte, KC, MP, former Attorney General and Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs of Jamaica, about judicial independence, confidential deliberations, panel composition and the challenge of preserving public confidence in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

Malahoo Forte argues that genuine concerns should not become a reason to tear down an important Caribbean institution—but neither should unanswered questions be allowed to linger. The conversation examines whether changes to CCJ panel composition go far enough, why procedural reform cannot by itself settle questions about institutional confidence, and the delicate balance between judicial confidentiality and accountability.

The discussion also explores Jamaica's constitutional future, including why becoming a republic does not automatically settle the choice between the CCJ and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as Jamaica's final appellate court. Malahoo Forte makes the case for strengthening the wider justice system while emphasising the CCJ's critical role in interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and supporting CARICOM and the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).

Also in this episode, the CBR Briefing examines land grabbing, squatter's rights and adverse possession across the Caribbean and asks a fundamental rule-of-law question: why should the State enjoy substantially greater protection from adverse possession than the private citizen?

And in our opening commentary: when milliseconds can be worth millions, what happens when market-sensitive information generated through presidential authority becomes a source of private commercial advantage?

Plus Market Watch and Global Pulse, with the economic, financial and policy developments shaping the Caribbean and global economy.

Three strategic takeaways emerge: institutional confidence requires both confidentiality and accountability; procedural reform cannot substitute for institutional explanation; and the debate over constitutional reform and the final court must ultimately be understood within the wider challenge of strengthening Caribbean institutions.

Come for the Analysis. Stay for the Conversation.

Caribbean Business Review | Season 4, Episode 8

Prominent Guyanese attorney Nigel Hughes, Managing Partner of Hughes, Fields and Stoby in Guyana, joins Caribbean Business Review following leakedinternal correspondence in which five sitting CCJ judges reportedly raised concerns involving panel composition, judicial influence and the exercise of authority at the Court’s highest level.

The issue goes beyond the leaked emails.

What happens when litigants begin questioning not simply ajudgment, but the process that produced it?

Hughes examines judicial independence, accountability andwhether the existing institutional architecture can credibly address concerns involving the Court’s leadership. We also explore what the controversy could mean for confidence in the CCJ’s Original Jurisdiction, the CARICOM SingleMarket and Economy (CSME), commercial dispute resolution and regional investment risk.

Also in this episode, Jamaica’s Property Tax Illusionexamines the revaluation of approximately 900,000 land parcels, international property-tax comparisons built on false equivalences, extensive exemptions and the country’s highest-and-best-use valuation framework.

We also examine FinCEN’s major US beneficial ownershiprollback, which permanently exempts US companies and persons from reporting requirements while foreign reporting companies remain subject to disclosure—raising wider questions about shifting standards in global financialregulation.

Plus, Market Watch and Global Pulse cover the US$750 millionPoint Lisas steel revival, Jamaica’s fiscal and FDI performance, Cayman’s record surplus, falling reinsurance pricing, Strait of Hormuz oil disruption, global energy and shipping pressures and the wider international economic outlook.

Caribbean Business Review | Season 4, Episode 7

Executive intelligence on Caribbean business, economics,markets, public policy, governance and regional integration.

Knowledge is Strength, but Information is Power.