Regional Economic Synergy & Measured Growth key factors says CDB President ahead of Annual Meeting set for Turks & Caicos

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, May 14, 2022 – “The single most important meeting in the bank’s agenda” is how Caribbean Development Bank President Hyginus Gene Leon described the Meeting of the Board of Governor of the CDB set for the Turks and Caicos this June.

Leon said there were three pillars that had been narrowed down to three ‘catchy’ phrases that the CDB found critical to the development of the region.

The first and theme of the event is ‘Measure Better to Target Better’ the second ‘Marshall Development Finance’ and the third ‘Share to Grow’ Leon said these three phrases embodied how the bank felt about development in the region.

“These three things have to work together and they work together only in the sense that we have a holistic idea of development.” Leon explained, “We have to move the entirety… The idea is always that when we grow and move forward we do that in a holistic way.”

Leon stated “this is particularly important because while in the past we have been growing we had left some people behind.”

The President  was obviously concerned about past trends; industries grew without consideration for nature, causing climate change and how growth in other areas had been a sort of ‘sugar high’ and was not sustainable.

This holistic re-approach is to avoid a repeat of strong growth in only one area or strong growth that was detrimental to another area, Leon said adding that, “When we advance, we advance together”

He said in regards to the theme, the better countries were able to measure their development,  the better the Caribbean, as a whole, would be able to target for achievement.

Meetings officially begin virtually on June first and include a president’s meeting with the heads of the CDB, the InterAmerican Development Bank and the African Development Bank.