PRESIDENT of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Dr. William Warren Smith, says the bank will continue to consolidate its position with Guyana in an effort to improve the quality of life for all citizens. His comments came moments after a meeting with President David Granger and Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo at the Ministry of the Presidency yesterday. Other members of the Cabinet present at the meeting were 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.

Dr. Smith and a team including Mrs. Patricia Mc Kenzie, Vice President of Operations, Dr. Justin Ram, Director of Economics, Mr. Andrew Dupiny, Director of Projects (Ag), Ms. Monica La Bennett, Deputy Director of Corporate Planning and Ms. Klao Bell-Lewis, Head of Corporate Communications, are currently on a two day visit to Guyana.
The primary focus of the visit is to meet with members of the new Administration to hear directly from them what the priority issues are, which the bank can provide assistance for. A priority area for the bank, climate change and the enabling of resilience as well as renewable energy, lines up with the Granger Administration’s focus on the development of a ‘Green Economy’. This is expected to be a key area of collaboration in the future.
“We also took the opportunity to brief the President on some of the major developments that have been taking place inside the CDB over the last four years, and to contextualise those changes 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.” Dr. Smith said.
Speaking on the continuing relationship between Guyana and the CDB, Dr. Smith said, Guyana, being a founding member of the Bank, has always been supportive of the institution, even through tough times.
“They have always met the obligations to the CDB and we think that we have played a very important role in the development of your country; our aspiration is to help you to ramp up that development, to speed up the process of the improvement of the quality of life of citizens,” the CDB President noted.
Dr. Smith added that as the environment changes and the requirements of Guyana continue to evolve, the bank will be working to adapt to those changes. “What we need to do is to adapt to your requirements, so that we can remain relevant and that is really the primary focus of our work at this time, and that is why we are putting so much effort into internal reform at CDB,” he said.
Since 1970, the CDB has provided loans of US$288 million and grants of US$37 million to Guyana, which is the fourth largest shareholder in the Bank. Guyana is the largest beneficiary of grants under the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF), 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.