By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, June 25, 2022 – The 2022 Annual General Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank opened with in style, becoming the first face-to-face meeting for the CDB since 2019. The opening ceremony was held on Wednesday the 15th of June at the Ritz Carlton and attended by dignitaries across the Caribbean.

Board of Governors member for Guyana, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo spoke on behalf of the Borrowing Member countries warning people not to get lulled into a sense of security or think it was business as usual because covid, shipping delays, and the war in Ukraine were all still factors in play.  He explained that not only was growth down in the borrowing countries, but debt was also up.

“The Caribbean needs the CDB, our bank, more than ever before as we tackle long-standing problems of infrastructure gaps, human capital development, access to basic social services, food security, and climate vulnerability.”

The Borrowing Members of the CDB include:  Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos.

Board of Governors Member for Brazil Roberto Fendt Junior delivered remarks on behalf of the regional non-Borrowing Member Countries reminiscing on what the pandemic taught governments in the region and their admirable efforts at resilience.

“We have learned that on this planet political borders cannot fully protect populations from being impacted and most of all we have learned that trustworthy information, knowledge sharing, and co-operation are key to overcoming man-made crises and natural disasters.”

In this vein, he praised the CDB’s efforts in creating a digital Knowledge Hub which will be a consolidated cloud of data that can be shared between member states. He stressed that in this effort the information should be both trustworthy and timely to avoid missed opportunities.

Mr. Sun Ping of China delivered the remarks virtually on behalf of the international Non Borrowing Member Countries.  He expressed understanding of the difficult position Caribbean countries were in at the moment and maintained that China was ready to work with the bank to see how they could alleviate some of those issues.

“China attaches great importance to bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the Caribbean through trade investment and cultural exchanges, we will spare no efforts to support the CDB in key areas such as regional infrastructure, environmental protection, educational transformation, and pandemic response.”

During the keynote address, President of the CDB Dr. Gene Leon explained what the bank was trying to do in the Caribbean.

“The challenge before us is how best to navigate a safe path from legacy structural weaknesses to transformative development while maintaining debt sustainability, enhancing macroeconomic and financial stability and resilience.”

Leon mentioned several ways the bank planned to tackle this in 2022:

By advancing food and nutrition security,

By advancing energy security,

By advancing water security.

He explained that we are too reliant on overseas food noting that at least 2.7 million people in the English-speaking Caribbean were food insecure. Thus CDB has created a plan to reduce imports of food by 25 percent by 2025 food.  In terms of energy, the CDB says member states are aiming to be 55 percent powered by renewable energy by 2939 at a cost of $ 20 billion.

In terms of water, Leon said they were partnering with the Inter-American Development Bank and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance facility on a Regional Water Utility Insurance company.

By creating access to Access to Adequate and Affordable Finance.  Over the next decade, the Caribbean must drum up over 100 billion dollars in investments to hit all its goals.  He said access to this type of financing would “shape a future where our citizens are able to live quality lives in societies that have embraced digitalization and have robust private sector partnerships with the requisite governmental arrangement to safeguard food and energy security.”

These goals are in line with the region’s aim to become the region of choice to live in and are essential if the Caribbean is to keep up with the rest of the globe.