Caribbean Development Bank President to serve second five-year term (89/2006)
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, MARCH 16TH 2006 (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis and other member nations of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) have supported the re-election of Dr. Compton Bourne to serve a second five-year term as President of the regional financial institution.
The former Principal and Professor of Economics at the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies assumed office on May 1, 2001, as the fourth president of CDB. His current term is due to end on April 30, 2006. According to the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. Bourne said his first term in office was “a very interesting and exciting period.” The CDB President says that he made the consolidation of relationships with shareholders a priority during this period, seeking to meet with them in their own countries to convey what the Bank was doing and how it saw its future, and to get their views.
With regard to the borrowing member countries, another issue which he sought to address is the way in which the Bank effectively services their needs in providing resources.“I think that while we have made some progress in that area deliberately by seeking to reorganize departments, analyzing our processes, I don’t think that we have got to the point where we can say we have achieved everything we would wish to achieve,” Dr. Bourne said.
However, Dr. Bourne is of the view that “the Bank can feel justifiably proud of the way it led the efforts to help construct a rescue package for Dominica, and I think our working relations with Grenada is a very good example of how the institution responds to member countries in moments of greatest need.”
Among the challenges that lie ahead, Dr. Bourne lists the ability of the Bank to continue to mobilize resources on the scale that is required for lending in the future and placing the Bank at the centre stage of Caribbean development.
Dr. Bourne’s vision for the future of CDB is that of “a Bank that maintains and strengthens its relevance to the countries of the Region. It must address the major development issues. Certainly one of the major issues is the problem of youth and how we engage them in the process of long-term development and sustainability of the countries, because if youth are of the view that they have no stake in the future of the country then the country has no future.”
The President’s new term will be effective May 1, 2006.
Photo: Caribbean Development Bank President Dr. Compton Bourne
Copyright © 2005 By The Government Of St. Christopher (St. Kitts) & Nevis
