CDB Governors to Meet in St. Lucia

Thursday, May 17, 2001 - St. Lucia next week hosts more than 200 delegates from over 30 countries who will visit to attend the 31^st Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

Headquartered in Barbados, CDB is a product of the regional integration movement embodied in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). It was established to support the region’s development by serving as the principal source of development financing for significant public sector-sponsored projects, especially in the Less Developed Countries (LDCs).

Every year, a member country gets a chance to host this important gathering of CDB’s top policy-making body. As a result of Prime Minister, Hon. Dr. Kenny D. Anthony, being the current chairman of the Board of Governors, it is St. Lucia’s turn this year. As chairman, Dr. Anthony will preside over the deliberations.

“It looks like it’s going to be a well-attended,…good and exciting meeting,” Dr.Anthony said, noting around five regional prime ministers are expected to take part. The venue is the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

St. Lucia has been closely affiliated with the CDB from its inception and has been a major beneficiary of CDB financing. Distinguished son of the soil, 1979 Nobel Laureate for economics, Sir Arthur Lewis, served as the  CDB’s first president when it was began operations in 1970.

The first CDB loan also went to St. Lucia – for the Cariblue Hotel where Le Sport stands today. Since then, CDB has pumped millions of dollars into various projects in St Lucia, ranging from the construction of roads, enhancing education through the building of schools,  to social development.

“Right now, CDB is playing a critical role in public sector investment in St. Lucia,” said Dr. Anthony, pointing to a $75 million road improvement programme to be undertaken over the next five years and a $5 million project for social development that includes empowering landless St. Lucians through ownership of land under the PROUD programme.

CDB is also playing a major role in government’s ambitious housing project, geared primarily at middle and low income families.

Preparatory meetings start on Monday to fine-tune what is expected to be a packed agenda for the Governors meeting which opens on Wednesday. A review of CDB’s operations over the past year is an agenda item.

With Caribbean countries going through a transition as a result of economic pressures from globalization, the meeting is viewed as crucial in the region’s collective bid to fashion an effective vision for repositioning itself in the emerging new world order.

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