Senator Williams Commends CDB

Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Senator Arthur Williams, today commended the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) for four decades of contribution to regional development as well as the individual advancement of its borrowing members.
Senator Williams was speaking at the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) being held in Nassau, Bahamas. He further commended the CDB, along with other multilateral development institutions, for the response to Haiti following the recent devastation there.
Noting the continued vulnerability of countries within the Caribbean region to natural disasters and external economic shocks, Senator Williams welcomed the recently approved increase in the general capital of the CDB, stating that the increase was an important platform from which the CDB could increase its support for economic transformation in the Caribbean.
The CDB Board of Governors today approved a 150 percent General Capital Increase for the Bank to support its lending programme over the ten-year period 2010 to 2019. This is the first such increase in capital for the CDB in nearly 20 years, and comes against the backdrop of increased demand for CDB resources by countries of the region.
Accompanying Senator Williams on his trip to the Bahamas are Dr. Wesley Hughes, Financial Secretary, and Dr. Wayne Henry, Chief Technical Advisor in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service.