The Honourable Camille Robinson-Regis, Minister of Planning and Development is announcing that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago has agreed to host regional Heads of Government, Ministers of Finance and other Governors and Directors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) at the Bank’s 49th Annual Board of Governors Meeting in June 2019. The Tobago House of Assembly is also in talks to host a one day meeting in Tobago to discuss matters of concern directly related to Tobago as part of the CDB’s Meeting. Minister Robinson-Regis is the designated Chair of the 49th Annual Meeting.
It is anticipated that approximately 400 delegates which include Prime Ministers and Government Ministers from the CDB’s 19 Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs), private sector representatives, members of civil society, academia, and media are expected to visit Trinidad and Tobago for this Meeting. Local representatives from these various sector groupings will also be engaged during the 4 day meeting proposed from June 3 through to the 6.
‘Transformation’ has been selected as the buzzword guiding the discussions of the programme for this year’s Meeting. Minister Robinson-Regis concurs that this buzzword is timely, especially for Trinidad and Tobago as the 49th Board of Governors meeting aims to spur conversation among regional leaders for action in the areas of economic diversification, entrepreneurship, governance, youth led innovation, climate change and managing the blue economy among other topics impacting regional and national development, all of which are at the top of the Government’s agenda.
In light of this announcement, Minister Robinson-Regis also notes that the CDB has projected regional economic growth for nearly all of its BMCs at an average rate of 2% for 2019, up from 1.8% growth for most BMCs, including T&T in 2018. According to the Bank, increasing growth rates are projected for Guyana; Suriname; and Trinidad and Tobago, driven by developments in the energy sectors while tourism development, construction, agriculture and business services will drive growth in most other BMCs. The aim for Trinidad and Tobago is to capitalize on this projected growth from developments in the energy sector to support the continued growth of the other economic sectors, therefore strengthening our economic transformation drive.
The Planning Minister states that it is therefore advantageous for us in T&T to be at the fore of these discussions via the CDB in order to further strengthen the alliances with our regional partners in order to build on each other’s strengths to continue driving growth in the region.