CDB reviews development challenges

GEORGETOWN, Guyana - The 43rd annual meeting of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Board of Governors in St Lucia last week, had the aura of a stocktaking of the state the region’s economies, in a context of persistent difficulty being experienced by many of the member countries. Speeches by both Prime Minister Kenny Anthony, as host Chairman of the meeting and Dr Warren Smith, the President of the Bank, gave voice to what is a general concern in the region. There is the feeling that too many CARICOM member states are bogged down in deep financial difficulty, with a seeming inability, over the last many years, to stabilize financial systems and resume economic growth.
The Bank’s meeting follows a year in which the economy of Jamaica, in particular, has been subjected to long negotiation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), eventually arriving at an agreement which is probably the harshest experienced by any country in the region. And not only that. For in addition, there seems much doubt, both in Jamaica and beyond, that the measures intended to ensure stabilization of the financial system, are likely to induce in the forseeable future, significant possibilities of upward movement to economic growth.