A visiting team from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) led by its President, Dr William Warren Smith on Wednesday met with President David Granger and Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo as well as several members of the cabinet to discuss priorities issues for which the bank can provide assistance.
According to a press release from the Ministry of the Presidency, the primary focus of the CDB’s two-day visit was to hear directly from the new administration what the priority issues were and how the bank can provide the relevant assistance.
The CDB noted that priority areas for it are climate change and the enabling of resilience as well as renewable energy. Those it said “line up with the Granger Administration’s focus on the development of a ‘Green Economy’” and are expected to be key areas of collaboration in the future.
In addition to its primary focus, Smith said he wanted to update the President on the major developments that had taken place in the CDB over the past four years so as to “provide an appreciation for how improvement of governance in our institution enables us to be more effective in serving our borrowing member countries, which is the purpose for which we were established.”
“Guyana,” Smith said, is a “founding member of the Bank [and] has always been supportive of the institution even through tough times.” In addition to which, Guyana has always met its obligations to the institution, but equally, he noted, the bank has an important role to play in the country’s development to such a degree that it aspires “to ramp up that development, to speed up the process of improvement of the quality of life of citizens.”
Further, the CDB President said it will work to adapt to changes as Guyana continues to evolve so that the institution can remain relevant.
According to the statistics, since 1970, the CDB has provided loans totalling US$288M and grants totalling US$37M to Guyana which is the institution’s fourth largest shareholder. Guyana has also been the largest borrower under the Basic Needs Trust Fund which was designed to support development in the areas of water and sanitation, early childhood education; support to vulnerable groups; and improving access through infrastructure in member countries.
Dr Smith was accompanied by Vice President of Operations, Patricia McKenzie; Director of Economics, Dr Justin Ram; Director of Projects (Ag), Andrew Dupiny; Deputy Director of Planning, Monica La Bennett; and Head of Corporate Communications Klao Bell-Lewis.
In addition to the President and Prime Minister, Guyana’s team comprised of Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan; Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge; Minister of Business and Investment, Dominic Gaskin; and Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson.
