Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows to The Bahamas reached $947 million last year, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The country’s tourism industry took the lion’s share with cruise line-driven projects such as Royal Caribbean’s $200 million investment in its private island CocoCay and Disney’s multi-million dollar purchase of property in Eleuthera boosting the numbers.

In total, the Caribbean recorded $5.623 billion in FDI last year with the greatest share going to The Dominican Republic which received just over $2.5 billion.

FDI to Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole grew by 13.2 per cent, totalling $182 billion and reversing a five-year decline in inflows to the region, according to ECLAC.

Warning countries in the region not to be complacent and to make strategic decisions regarding FDI, ECLAC executive secretary Alicia Bárcena said: “In an international context of a reduction in FDI flows and strong competition for investments, national policies should be oriented towards attracting ever more FDI that contributes to forming knowledge-based capital and advancing towards sustainable patterns of production, energy and consumption.”

To read the full ECLAC report, Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2019, click here.