IT is of significance that the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has chosen to place a special focus on the climate change phenomena for its forthcoming annual meeting in Guyana scheduled for May.Guyana is recognised regionally and internationally for the high priority it invests in climate change to enhance sustainable development. And former President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has played important roles and continues to do so as he remains focused on this nation’s involvement at various high-level international fora.
For its scheduled May 28 – 29 meeting in Guyana, the CDB has arranged for the 15th ‘William G. Demas Memorial Lecture’ to be delivered by the Executive Director of the ‘Green Climate Fund’, Ms Hela Cheikhrouhou.
A  Tunisian national, she has spent more than a decade working in multi-lateral development banks in Latin America and Africa. The lecture has been named after the CDB’S distinguished second President who was also a long-serving former Secretary General  of the Caribbean Community.
In  a statement announcing the CDB’s meeting in Guyana, the Bank’s President, Dr Warren Smith, noted that the regional institution “is placing very high priority on addressing climate change concerns in the interest of safeguarding the sustainable development of our region. We, therefore, welcome Ms. Cheikhrouhou”, he said, noting that her “experience in the area of climate finance will be well received as the region intensifies its efforts to build resilience to climate impacts….”
The  ‘Demas lecture’ traditionally takes place on the evening prior to the official start of the Bank’s annual meeting which involves participation of the region’s Ministers of Finance along with Governors of Central Banks, economists, executives and  academics to discuss issues of concerns to the regional institution’s 19 borrowing member countries
This year’s meeting in Guyana will also include a series of seminars dealing with public-private development partnerships; the ‘green economy’; agriculture and climate change as well as a multi-dimensional approach to “country poverty assessments”.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh is Guyana’s long-serving representative on the CDB’s Board of Governors.
Established in 1969 with headquarters in Barbados for the purpose of contributing to the “harmonious economic growth and development of member countries of the Caribbean, the CDB had total assets of US$1.45 billion at the end  of 2013.

(Rickey Singh)