Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Heads of Government, Members of the Board of Governors, Members of the Board of Directors, Mr. President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Directors and Officers of the Bank, Observers, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It has always been for me, as Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, a great pleasure and a privilege to address the Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of CDB. This Thirty-Sixth Meeting is no exception, nor is the wonderful welcome and hospitality we have been receiving from the Government and People of Jamaica for which we are extremely grateful.

Mr. Chairman, CDB, as an institution, is one of the central pillars of the regional integration and development process. Indeed, the purpose of the Bank, is to cite its founding instrument “is to contribute to the harmonious economic growth and development of the Member Countries in the Caribbean and to promote economic cooperation among them, having special and urgent regard for the needs of the less developed members of the Region”. Against that background, I would like to offer my congratulations to CDB on another solid year of performance during 2005. I would particularly wish to congratulate my friend and colleague President Bourne, on his well-deserved re-election and look forward to our continued collaboration in pursuit of the development goals of the Region.

It is in this spirit of collaboration that I would like to express our appreciation to CDB for postponing its Third Plenary Session to this afternoon, so as to facilitate the holding this morning of the High Level CARICOM Consultation on ‘Enhanced Monetary Cooperation in the Caribbean’. We are also grateful for CDB’s cooperation and support in the making of the logistical and other arrangements for the convening of the Third Special Meeting of the Ministerial Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP) later this evening in these very surroundings.

The substance of CDB’s involvement in this evening’s Meeting, however, is much more than logistical. In fact, CDB’s role is also highly technical, as it has been vested with the lead role since 2005, in devising the arrangements for operationalising the regional Development Fund of the Caribbean Community – a vital element of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) as provided for in Article 158 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. Simply put, this Fund which is analogous to the European Union structural funds, is intended to help restructure and transform the CARICOM economies into a single internationally competitive economy and for facilitating its gradual insertion into the global economy.

Two weeks ago, I sat next to the President of CDB as he expertly guided the Meeting of Senior Finance Officials in crafting a set of recommendations with respect to the management structure; contributions formula; priority areas for funding; conditions for access to the Fund resources; and sustainability requirements of the Fund. These are among the key issues to be considered by Finance Ministers at this evening’s COFAP Meeting.

The CARICOM Heads of Government at the Seventeenth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference in February of this year have already agreed on the size of the Fund - USD250 mn of which $120 mn is to be contributed by CARICOM Member States. With $20 mn having been provided from the Petroleum Fund established by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, Finance Ministers will be examining proposals relating to the formula for contributions by their countries to the Fund at the COFAP Meeting this evening.

The international financial institutions, our other development partners, and the regional private sector will be approached regarding the mobilisation of the outstanding $130 mn. It is hoped that CDB will continue to support this vital initiative, being itself an institution established to have special and urgent regard for the needs of the less developed members of the Region and bearing in mind the importance of this mechanism for the achievement of CSME with its particular focus on assisting the “Disadvantaged Countries, Regions and Sectors”.

Important, indeed, even critical, as the Development Fund is, it is however only one of the many instruments necessary for responding to the financial and other developmental needs of the Caribbean Region. The World Bank, in its 2005 publication, ‘A Time to Choose: Caribbean Development in the 21st Century’ informed that “seven of the ten most indebted countries (and 14 out of 30) are in the Caribbean”. The pressure on the public purse is tending to rise even further with required increases in Government expenditure on the security measures required to combat crime and the related drug smuggling scourge, and on the security requirements for fighting terrorism. There is also the cost of adjustment of the Caribbean economies that must be borne as a result of the loss of preferential access and other changes in our major traditional markets associated with liberalisation and globalisation. Yesterday, Prime Minister Douglas spoke, for example of the resulting demise of his country’s 300-year sugar industry. One consequence of this general situation is the Region’s inability to trade its way out of debt. The situation is further compounded by the astronomical rise in petroleum prices. Last September, a number of CARICOM countries and Venezuela signed the PetroCaribe Agreement in this hotel – I think in this very room - in an attempt to stem the tide of this new and continuing challenge. To top it all, the Region faces a veritable hemorrhage of its human resources as over three-quarters of its tertiary trained nationals migrate to developed countries – a phenomenon that no amount of remittances can offset. The Caribbean economy is therefore at a veritable crossroads and it is to reconstruct, transform and make it globally competitive that the CSME is being designed and it is for that reason that it needs and deserves the support of all.

The recent series of meetings in Europe by CARICOM Heads of Government with the European Union and Spain as well as other enquiries suggest that given a properly designed instrument fully supported by CARICOM Member States themselves, contributions to the Development Fund would be forthcoming from the donor community.

Mr. Chairman, we would like to thank CDB for its outstanding contribution in helping the Region to tackle these critical issues. We would also wish to congratulate CDB on its Poverty Assessment work as part of the process of assisting Member States in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The fact that CDB has been able for the eighth consecutive year, to be in an operational position of net positive transfer of resources to its borrowing members, reflects a truly commendable achievement on the part of Management and Staff.

The currently available resources of CDB are however, not adequate, in light of the demands that are expected to be made on it in the context of its new Strategic Plan for 2005-2009. This is so, notwithstanding the successful completion of negotiations for the Sixth Cycle Replenishment of the Special Development Fund, praiseworthy as this has been. The demands on CDB resources and on the Non-Borrowing Members are likely to become even greater with the expected accession of Haiti and Suriname to CDB’s Membership. It is in this context that I would like to make an appeal to those countries that are considering becoming Non-Borrowing Members of the Bank – and we met at least one in Europe last week – to do so without delay. The time is most apt.

Mr. Chairman, before closing, I am forced to sound a particularly sombre note of warning. We are some two weeks away from the official start of the 2006 hurricane season. As if the 2004 hurricane season was not bad enough, the year 2005, said to be the warmest for over a hundred years, was truly horrific with an unprecedented 13 hurricanes in the Caribbean Region (not including the incredible floods that immersed the Guyana coastland). Scientists have made the dire forecast that there will be nine hurricanes this year, of which five will be major hurricanes of category three or higher. Furthermore, this excludes tropical storms which are expected to number seventeen. Whatever we may think of the reliability of these forecasts, the picture they paint is worrying. How odd is it that countries making the least contribution to global warming are likely to be the ones experiencing the maximum of the adverse consequences! The associated perennial reconstruction needs are having a further deleterious effect on sustainable development in the Caribbean. This natural hazard phenomenon increases the call on CDB’s resources and adds to the burden resulting from the many vulnerabilities of the Region.

The role of CDB is at this juncture in our Region’s development and is therefore more important than ever. We of the CARICOM Secretariat know what the weight of that burden is like. On April 3, this year, for example, the Secretariat was faced with participating in some nine Meetings on that day alone. And, as Ministers of Finance were scheduled to meet here in Jamaica tomorrow, so is our Community Council the, second highest organ of the Community scheduled to meet in Guyana on the same day to prepare for the Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in St. Kitts and Nevis in early July. In all of this, we are grateful to have the CDB as a key partner in spearheading the development efforts of our Region. We therefore wish to congratulate the President, his staff, the Board of Directors and, indeed, you the Board of Governors on another successful year of operations of CDB and look forward to our continued fruitful cooperation in pursuit of our Region’s sustainable economic, social and cultural development.

Mr. Chairman I close by congratulating this, the Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of CDB, on being an outstanding success.