#AskWBCaribbean: Fiscal Policy for Resilient Small States

Lilia Burunciuc is the World Bank’s Country Director for the Caribbean countries. Ms. Burunciuc, a Moldovan national, is responsible for maintaining the partnership with the countries to address their development challenges. Since joining the World Bank in 1996, she held a range of increasingly challenging positions: Director for Central Asia; Manager in Operations Policy and Country Services; Country Manager for Macedonia; Country Program Coordinator for Southern Africa and Central Asia; and Senior Country Officer for Ukraine and Belarus. She has extensive experience on leading policy dialogue with governments on various aspects of development.  Prior to joining the Bank, Ms. Burunciuc was a Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Moldova, the country’s central bank.  She has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from George Washington University (USA) and a Master’s level degree in Economics, Management and Planning from the Technical University of Moldova.

Robert Taliercio O’Brien, a U.S. national, is the Regional Director in the Latin America and Caribbean Region for the Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions (EFI) Department, which comprises nearly 200 professionals and delivered US$ 3.9 billion in new lending operations to clients last year. He was previously a Practice Manager for the Latin America and Caribbean Region in the Governance Global Practice (GGP). Prior to that he was the Practice Manager of the Public Sector Group in East Asia and Pacific, a region where he had earlier served as Lead Economist. In 20 years at the World Bank, he has served as Senior Country Economist and Public Sector Specialist in the East Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, and the Africa regions. He has designed and led investment and development policy operations as well as public expenditure reviews and public financial management diagnostics for a range of clients, including Armenia, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, and Myanmar. He has received service awards from the Ministers of Finance of the Republic of Korea and the Kingdom of Cambodia. Prior to joining the World Bank, Dr. Taliercio was a Lecturer in Public Finance at the Harvard Institute for International Development and a Manager for HIID’s Program on Investment Appraisal and Management. He also served as a visiting professor at the Bolivian Catholic University. He has written on public finance policy and administration in academic journals, books, and development publications. Dr. Taliercio holds a PhD and an MPP in public policy from Harvard University, an AM in Latin American Studies from Stanford University, and an AB in public and international affairs from Princeton University.

Fernando Blanco, a Bolivian national, joined the World Bank in 2002 as country economist for Brazil. Since then he has worked in Africa, South Asia and MENA regions and most recently, as Lead Economist for Mexico in the Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment (MTI) Global Practice. Fernando is specialized in macroeconomics and fiscal policy and in his years in the Bank he led the preparation of high-profile analytical tasks and 12 policy-based development lending and grant operations amounting more than $2bi in Latin America and Africa.  Currently, he is the Principal Economist covering the Europe and Central Asia Region at the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group. Prior to the World Bank, Fernando worked at the Institute of Applied Economics Research (IPEA), a think-tank of the Brazilian government, and was professor of Public Economics and International Economics at the Brazilian Institute of Capital Markets (IBMEC) and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.  Fernando holds a PhD in Economics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. 

Doerte Doemeland is the Practice Manager for Macroeconomics, Trade & Investment for Latin America and the Caribbean of the World Bank, responsible for the delivery of a range of Development Policy Operations, analytical products and technical assistance projects across the region with a particular focus on economic growth and fiscal management. Previously, Doerte was Practice Manager for Global Macro and Debt, where she played a key role in shaping the implementation of World Bank policies and engagements on public debt, including related to HIPC, the DSSI and the G20 Common Framework. In this role, she also represented the World Bank at the Paris Club and the G20 IFA Working Group. Before becoming Practice Manager, Ms. Doemeland worked on technical, analytical and operational tasks in low, middle, and high-income countries in ECA, LAC and Sub-Saharan Africa, including as Lead Economist for EU member states and the Andean countries. She also joined  the World Bank’s Research Department for two years to work with the Sr. Vice President and Chief Economist. She was the first Program Manager of the World Bank’s Debt Management Facility (DMF), and was responsible for setting up the DMF and establishing its work program. Doerte has published several books, book chapters and articles in peer reviewed journals on issues related to fiscal policy, debt and growth. She holds a PhD in economics from University Pompeu Fabra (Spain).

Ms. Huidan Lin is the IMF mission chief for Grenada (since November 2021). She previously worked as senior desk economist on Costa Rica in the Western Hemisphere Department of the IMF. Before that, she worked in the Lending Policy and External Policy Divisions of the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department. Throughout her career, she has worked on several surveillance and program cases in low‑income countries, emerging market economies, and the Euro Area. Her research interests over the years have included the analysis of external imbalances, unconventional monetary policy, labor markets and gender, as well as climate change. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University and a B.A. in Economics from Peking University, China.

Christine holds a PhD in Economics - Public Finance from Rice University in Houston and a BA in Economics (honors) and Mathematics from Mount Holyoke College. She is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at UWI Mona where she is also the Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Her research areas include public finance, economic development, economics of sport and resilience. She has published articles on wage determination in Jamaica and on development issues in the Caribbean, two books on Jamaica’s relationship with the International Monetary Fund published by Palgrave, and several book chapters. She serves as a Director on the Board of the Bank of Jamaica where she uses her Audit Certification as the Chair of the Audit Committee, and she is an independent Director on the only listed used car dealer JETCON Corporation. She has also worked at the Planning Institute of Jamaica as the Director of Economic Planning.

Mike Sylvester currently serves as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance in Grenada, a position held since October 2020.  Prior to his current position, Mike held the role of Permanent Secretary (Ag.) in 2016 and worked in various middle management positions within the Ministry from 1996 to 2005. From February 2017 to August 2020, he served as an Advisor to the Executive Director for Canada, Ireland, and the Caribbean at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Mike holds a Master of Science degree in Economic Policies and Reforms for Development with honors from the Universidad Catolica De Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a focus on Management from Andrews University in the USA.

Mr. Timothy N. J. Antoine, a national of Grenada, assumed duties as the third Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) on 1 February 2016. Mr. Antoine is an economist and development practitioner by training, experience and passion. He holds a BSc Degree in Economics with Management from the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill) and a MSc Degree in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries from the London School of Economics. Before assuming the office of Governor, Mr. Antoine had a 22-year distinguished career with the Government of Grenada. Much of that time (14 years), he served as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

From November 2005 to November 2007, Mr. Antoine served as Advisor to the Executive Director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean in the World Bank Group and was based in Washington D.C.

He is the recipient of The Order of Grenada Gold Award for Excellence (2016). He has also been conferred with an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters by St. George’s University for services to Grenada and St. George’s University (2018). Mr. Antoine has contributed to the development of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) and wider Caribbean by serving on several regional and international boards and committees.  At present, he is Chairman of the Eastern Caribbean Home Mortgage Bank, Chairman of the Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange and Chairman of CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility).