 I am Camille Taylor, Head of Corporate Communications and I will be moderating the proceedings. As our ongoing dialogue with the region continues, today we want to center the conversation on creating a better future for the Caribbean. The team that will represent the bank this morning includes our President, Dr. Hygienus Jean Leon, Mr. Isaac Solomon, Vice President of Operations, Mr. Daniel Best, the Director of Projects, Mr. Ian Durant, the Director of Economics and Ms. Anne-Marie Warner, Deputy Director of Corporate Strategy. Our specially invited guests, the members of the media, will have an opportunity to pose questions to this entire panel. However, to set the context for a dialogue, we will have three presentations. First, President Leon will draw the roadmap to the best future by providing prescriptions for growth, resilience and transformation. He will be followed by Vice President Solomon, who will outline how we are preparing our people, economies and societies for the future. Then, Deputy Director Warner will give an overview of the effectiveness of CDV's key interventions and evaluate the region's progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, as she explores the necessity of targeting for a better future. For the first up to bat is our Captain, President Leon. Good morning to all our guests, especially the media joining us here today, both virtually and in person. After two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 brought a return to some semblance of normalcy. Electively, Caribbean countries experienced an improvement in economic performance. But the combined impact of several years of consecutive shocks, as well as the prospect of a slowdown in the global economy, and continued price pressures in 2023, threatened to derail our development trajectory. In this context, CDV continues to emphasize resilience as the primary ingredient for sustainable economies and societies. Key to achieving resilience is reducing our vulnerability to factors outside of our control while employing the elements within our power to achieve our development objectives. Led by this premise, I will outline several high-level recommendations for sparking growth, building resilience, and driving transformation. These propositions emanate from anchors that can be utilized to chart the course of our desired future, specifically access to finance, regional cooperation and integration, regional connectivity and transportation solutions, food sovereignty, climate action, energy security, and private sector engagement. I will start with the most essential element, finance. The onset of COVID-19 amplified structural weaknesses in our economies and highlighted the extent of our financing need. We estimate that the region faced close to US $10 billion in gross financing needs in 2020, which is a measure of a country's overall fiscal position, plus any funds needed to repay existing debt. Moreover, the expenditures needed to address the vulnerabilities exposed by the pandemic and the resources required to achieve the sustainable development goals suggest that the resource needs of the region are in fact much, much larger than the 10 billion I spoke of. Compared to the gross financing needs I just stated, the bank provided an average of $300 million for our borrowing member countries during 2018 to 2022. With gross financing needs likely remaining elevated through at least 2030, the mobilization of financing inflows therefore becomes critical to all that we do going forward. To meet the region's financing needs and address mounting fiscal pressures, CDB therefore recommends, one, broadening regional financial systems to create financial markets that will facilitate intra- and inter-Caribbean flows of capital, geared towards mobilizing regional savings and driving a partnership with the private sector for financing our development. Two, strengthening public financial management and expenditure ecosystems to ensure transparency and accountability in government spending and to improve linkages between government strategic plans and the allocation of resources. In that regard, CDB strongly supports increased results based budgeting tied to the STGs with emphasis on the reform of the public sector's chart of accounts, medium term integrated fiscal frameworks, and the implementation of an integrated financial management information system. Through these investments countries can engage in more proactive budgeting processes and benefit from improved efficiency of spending. Three, advocating for a more equitable deployment of existing concessional resources, as well as providing a rationale for increasing financial resources at more concessional terms. And fourth, supporting the re-channeling of excess special drawing rights of advanced economies to enable the transforming and repositioning of the region's economies. Let me now turn to regional cooperation. Regional cooperation and integration are urgent and crucial for the region's post-pandemic recovery and overcoming our development challenges. The pandemic and the ongoing global energy and food crisis have underscored the limitations of countries working alone to effectively combat the impact of these shocks. CDB is committed to enhancing regional cooperation and deepening regional integration and accordingly has determined that a core priority in promoting regional cooperation and integration will be the support for regional public goods. In 2022, the bank supported several regional priorities in transport, intra-regional trade, food security, agriculture, private sector development, climate action and renewable energy. While we have made strides, there is more work to be done in these areas, as well as leapfrogging in other areas such as digitalization and innovation. Given the region's experience over the 2020 to 2022 period, now is the time for us to reimagine regional cooperation and integration and what this could mean for us as Caribbean citizens. I therefore call for a renewed commitment to advance the implementation of the curriculum and single-market economy, CSME, thereby improving the lives of the region's citizens through one, increasing market access for goods, services and people, providing economies of scale, offering greater employment and business opportunities and providing a platform for increased innovation and digitalization. If connectivity is the lifeblood for the development of modern economies, then transportation is a critical valve. Yet, intra-regional transport declined by as much as 50% between 2008 and 2018, a situation that I am sure you are all familiar with, and a situation that is now at a crisis level in the eastern Caribbean, where the demise of LIAT in 2020 meant a loss of airlift from an average of 500 weekly flights in 2019 to 50 flights in 2022. CDB therefore views dependable and cost-effective air transportation services as essential for the transformation of several of the region's economies. Consequently, to safeguard the region's future, governments need to take decisive and integrated action to reform the air transportation operating environment. These measures should include, one, rationalizing the regulatory environment and addressing factors that contribute to the high cost of travel, as well as elements that hinder the seamless movement of people within the region, two, promoting cooperation among regional airlines to reduce wasteful competition and improve inter-aligned connectivity, and three, forging a critical mass of collective will at the policy level. On to food. Another matter requiring urgent attention is how we meet food and nutrition needs. Recent global data from the United Nations indicates that the cost of a healthy diet is highest in Latin America and the Caribbean. With the Caribbean currently importing more than 80% of the food we consume, food sovereignty must be a key collective objective. The major challenges facing the region's agricultural sector include low productivity, inconsistent output, high vulnerability to natural hazards, and the impacts of climate change. The result, as I'm sure you are all aware of, is low competitiveness, limited ability to respond to regional and international market demands, and heavy dependence on imports to meet food and nutrition needs. Therefore, to address this, we recommend, one, investing in air and marine transport infrastructure and services to facilitate improved intra-regional trade and integration into global food markets. Two, designing and supporting the implementation of internationally recognized food safety standards to strengthen market linkages. And three, increasing investment in appropriate and location-specific climate smart agriculture processes and promoting agricultural insurance to reduce risk posed by climate change and natural hazard events. Climate. It is well known that the Caribbean is among the most climate-vulnerable regions on the planet, and projections suggest our risks are likely to intensify in the coming decades. Climate-related hazards pose an ongoing threat to physical infrastructure, to current and future economic activity, and the capacity to deliver social services. Regrettably, the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, COP 27, which was held last November in Egypt, yielded no firm commitments from major carbon emitters to accelerate the decarbonization efforts. This has major, major implications for the survival of our Caribbean economies. Similarly, little progress was made with the goal of the Glasgow Climate Pact, adopted at COP 26, to double adaptation finance from 2019 levels by 2025. Nevertheless, CDB welcomes the significant additional pledges that were made to the Adaptation Fund, and we acknowledge the progress made by developed countries toward the 100 billion US dollar annual climate finance goal, although this, which was targeted for 2020, is not likely to be met until maybe later this year 2023 or 2024. The Bank also applaud the significant progress in relation to the establishment of a new dedicated loss and damage fund for developing countries, the early implementation of which will be important for supporting efforts to achieve the SDGs. Since most of our regional economies face common climate-related threats, we need to act collectively. Collectively in urging developed countries to meet the existing 100 billion dollars per year climate finance commitment, pressing for a new collective quantified goal on climate finance to address constraints such as difficulties accessing available funding, uncertainty and timing of funds and insufficient levels of concessionality, and likewise ensuring that climate change vulnerability is considered in determining how to deliver international financial assistance and debt relief to developing economies. CDB understands that these major changes will not happen overnight. Therefore, we must also utilize today, utilize effectively the existing climate finance architecture. There are already resources available which Caribbean countries are still not fully exploiting. Since a key reason for this is scale, the region must work together on the multi-country programmatic approaches to achieve economies of scale and to mobilize larger sums of climate finance. Additionally, available financing should be utilized and drive transformational changes. Despite efforts over the past two decades, CDB's BMC still face a lack of energy security that is firmly rooted in an over dependence on imported fossil fuels, which accounts for almost 80 percent of electricity generation in the region. Electricity prices, however, across most BMCs remain among the highest in the world, averaging about three times the average prices in the United States. In 2022, when oil prices increased by an average of 50 percent compared to 2019 levels, the impact was felt by everyone on the scoring our collective need for a sustainable energy transition. In December 2022, CDB finalized an updated energy sector policy and strategy devised to expedite that energy transition within the region. To enable this shift, we devised the accelerated sustainable energy and resilience transition framework, better known as ACERT, through which we will partner with the governments of our BMCs to, one, support the establishment of legal and regulatory frameworks, policies and programs that support renewable energy and energy efficiency, two, explore fiscal regimes and other measures that will expand the engagement of local and regional private sector, and three, focus research and development initiatives on renewable energy technologies more suited to the Caribbean environment. Significantly, most of the anchors that I have highlighted as pivotal for the growth and sustainability of the region will require the region's private sector to transition from bystanders to partners in the development space, from bystanders to partners in the development space. This transition requires a change in mindset to reimagine traditional public-private partnerships, PPPs, to partnerships for prosperity and profits. As such, the region's governments will need to create an enabling environment, one, and invest in innovation, such that public value propositions offer viable investment opportunities. We accept the expectation of private sector-led growth, but now we need to move beyond private sector-led growth to private sector-led development. In fact, pursuing growth, resilience, and transformation without a definitive role for the private sector is like playing football with some of our best strikers sitting on the bench. I think we know what happens when this occurs. We lose the game. Now, even as we lay plans to move the region's development agenda forward, we can anticipate that 2023 will bring its own challenges and surprises. However, I believe the best way to predict the future is to create it. While there is no silver bullet, the areas I have outlined can serve to advance our progress to a better future in the region. CDB stands ready to accelerate collaboration with its BMCs and other stakeholders in a partnership to propel the region forward, a partnership to propel the region forward. We have no choice. Time is running out. With that, I want to thank you for your attention, and I will now turn the podium to Isaac Salomon, Vice President of Operations. Thank you. Thank you, President. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As Camille indicated earlier, in this presentation, I will provide an overview of the region's economic performance in 2022, along with some forecasts and highlights for 2023. In addition, I will report on the performance of CDB's projects in 2022. Ladies and gentlemen, we are united with our stakeholders in improving the environment and reducing poverty in the region. The forefront of this imperative are our diverse constituents, some of whom are acutely affected by challenges limiting their potential. Focusing on our collective strengths, we continue to provide support to adequately prepare our societies for the future. In 2022, some pathways to this future were built through more than 65 CDB projects across our borrowing member countries, or BMCs, contingent policy advice, and also technical leadership in our interface with thousands in the field, despite the lingering presence of COVID-19. Notwithstanding, the Caribbean is now at a critical juncture. The impact of protracted shocks has compounded the region's socioeconomic challenges. Many have been pushed into poverty, and many long-held development gains have been eroded. In 2022, CDB provided much-needed assistance and made strained fiscal budgets and remained responsive to our BMC's demands for resources to strengthen and reposition economies for longer-term inclusive growth. Early optimism for strengthening of the global economic rebound which began in 2021, and an easing of COVID-19 legacy supply chain imbalances was dampened by the Russian-Ukrain War. Despite the emerging challenges, BMC economies continued to recover. Increased economic activity spurred through regional economic growth that averaged 10.3 percent in 2022, compared to 4.5 percent in 2021. Regional growth was largely underpinned by two things. One, increased energy production in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, and higher international oil prices, which fuel much of the 20.6 percent economic growth in commodity-exporting BMCs. In tourism-dependent countries, increases in extra-regional relief resulted in a strong, though incomplete recovery amid rising inflation that dampened domestic demand and moderated growth in key economic sectors. This outturned boy economic growth of 4.6 percent with increased government revenues and improved fiscal positions. The average primary surplus also improved slightly, from a deficit of 1.1 percent of GDP in 2021 to a surplus of 0.2 percent. The region's pace of debt accumulation slowed in 2022. This and higher nominal GDP placed debt ratios on a downward trajectory. Supply chain imbalances, high and persistent food and energy inflation, and rising costs of living, coupled with heightened concerns over food and energy security, are at the forefront of the development challenges. As the president stated, access to food remains a major concern. Food insecurity threatens our region, especially the poor, for whom food and fuel comprises a large share of their consumption basket. This cushioned this impact, pivoting from significant pandemic-related fiscal stimuli and income support towards cost of living assistance. We welcome and support the initiative of the heads of government of CARICOM to reduce the estimated $5 billion regional food import bill by 25 percent in 2025. We also continue to invest in climate-resilient agriculture production and marketing systems in several BMCs. CDB is financing consultancy services to help devise urgent provisional measures to re-establish regular air transport services within the OECS and inform the establishment of a marine cargo service between Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, and Barbados. To reduce inflation, monetary authorities across all major economies concurrently rolled back accommodative monetary policy aimed at supporting the post-pandemic recovery. Similar disinflation policies were also deployed by central banks and monetary authorities in some BMCs as they grappled with the difficult policy trade-off of lowering inflation versus slowing the recovery. Now 2022 was an extremely difficult year for the Haitian people, who continued to endure political instability and attendant insecurity. Of particular concern was gang-related violence, acute food and fuel shortages, price hikes, and continued negative impacts of natural hazard events and climate change. GDP stayed close to the situation and continues its efforts to meet Haiti's development needs. In addition to policy advice, our portfolio of interventions focused on education, climate-resilient agriculture, disaster, risk management, and climate resilience is ongoing through the Haiti country office. Turning to the labour market conditions, women's employment was especially affected during the pandemic. There were general improvements in 2022. Dataware available shows increased employment levels for men and women, mirroring the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and the reopening of key economic sectors. Unemployment among the region's youth is expected to remain elevated, underscoring that we must invest collectively in addressing this challenge. At the bank, we expanded support to improve the business climate among our BMCs, with a focus on the procedures to start a business. The intent is to enhance these processes and increase access to the formal economy for underserved groups, such as women, youth, and persons with disabilities. The region was largely spared the brunt of catastrophic storm impacts in 2022. But there is a great need for resources if we are to meet our climate commitments under the Paris Agreement and make progress on the implementation of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The bank successfully met its declared objective to be fully aligned with the agreement by December 2022. This is important to contribute to reducing global greenhouse gases, promoting adaptation and advocating for more climate financial sources as we play our part in addressing the global climate crisis. As we pursue economic recovery and strong resilience, if we do not make the right investments now, climate change impacts and the associated costs will mount. Going ahead, for 2023, we project that despite facing multiple challenges, BMC's economic performance will continue to improve over the medium term, while cautiously optimistic about the near-term outlook and recognizing the uncertainty regarding the war in Ukraine. It is difficult to estimate growth with a large degree of certainty. CDB forecast regional growth of 5.7% in 2023 anchored on the continued resuscitation of tourism arrivals and continued investments in the energy sector. This forecast, however, is subject to some downside risks since most advanced economies are on track to register lower growth relative to 2022, increasing the likelihood of a global recession. When coupled with continued albeit low inflation, this slowdown in economic activity could trigger stark inflation. The predicted economic growth should boost government revenues and aid in improving fiscal outcomes. In addition, some BMCs have signal intentions to intensify consolidation efforts in 2023 to get back in line with fiscal rules suspended during the pandemic period. Focus now needs to be on targeted social support to those most vulnerable to the cost of living crisis. However, a slower than expected economic recovery could delay implementation of economic and fiscal reforms and progress in fiscal consolidation. In 2023, the effects of tighter monetary policy in advanced economies in response to stubbornly high inflation will be felt within the region through higher interest rates on sovereign instruments, downward pressures on possibly both foreign direct investment and inward remittance flows. The second-wrong effects of such policies can adversely affect the region's ability to access adequate concessional development financing and to sustain progress towards attaining the sustainable development goals. The ever-present risk associated with natural hazard events will continue to loom over the region. I have painted a picture of the 2022 landscape and what lies ahead. I will now share some more on some key aspects of CDB's response and where we think our full attention as a region is needed. As we continue to help BMCs meet the SDGs, working closely with communities, countries and development partners, CDB was able to make a number of development achievements that moved us closer to the SDGs. In 2022, approved grants and loans totaled $158.1 million United States dollars, 15 percent over the previous year. Disbursements totaled $292.5 million United States dollars. We also made strides in key projects in Suriname, Guyana, the Bahamas, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Belize. In 2021, we were able to play a major catalytic role in increasing trade and related economic opportunities through the EPA and CSME standby facility for capacity building. In addition, we continue to strengthen social sector infrastructure in communities through the basic needs trust fund BNTF program. B remains at the forefront of the original effort to accelerate recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. We have supported programs for health, social resilience and learning continuity in the OHS. As of December 31, 2022, CDB approved nine projects and is both $25 million United States dollars under the 50 million global loan program. CDB, in partnership with the Carcom Secretariat and the OECS Commission, developed the Let's Reap program to provide schools in BMCs with a roadmap to address the pandemic related learning gaps and increase inclusion. The bank approved $570,000 United States dollars to provide certification training for 3,000 teachers. An additional 12,000 teachers are to be certified and approximately 1.2 million boys and girls stand to benefit from this investment. We also advanced special education training for 75 teachers in St. Lucia to help cater more effectively to varied student needs and improve the quality of education. New partnerships have also been forged with CDB signing a financing agreement for a soft loan of 50 million United States dollars with the government of the Italian Republic for a program to support sustainable development projects in the Carcom community countries. Interventions are also underway to increase climate resilience, trade and agriculture. Of note are the 14 million euros from the European Union to implement the Caribbean Action for Resilience Enhancement Care program. In concluding, CDB and its BMCs take a holistic view of resilience building and development. Hence, our development activities are designed to be responsive to present socioeconomic and environmental issues to create and seize opportunities for increased resilience and sustainable development and to drive success in vital areas in 2023 and beyond. BMCs must consider redoubling efforts to address the structural drivers of vulnerability, crime and poverty and to build the necessary resilience to enhance economic growth prospects and grow sustainably. We strongly believe that in addition to pursuing the previous dimension priorities, the following must be key drivers towards the achievement of more holistic development that is gender responsive and has lasting solutions and impacts. 1. For financial resilience, we commit to supporting comprehensive debt management strategies, public financial management and promoting access to adequate and affordable financing. 2. For social resilience, promoting gender equality, women's reintegration into the workforce and the prevention of discrimination, sexual and gender-based violence and in addition strengthening social protection systems such as unemployment insurance. 3. For building production resilience, promoting a private sector ecosystem that has innovation, diversification, financial inclusion of the most vulnerable, and MSME development as a way of reducing poverty at its core. This includes enhancing economic infrastructure such as investing in significant water projects. 4. For greater institutional resilience, key priority actions in strengthening governance capacity to deliver through implementation of cross-sectoral policies and programs and to avert and manage crisis protecting the poorest in societies. 5. Revolutionizing digital infrastructure and technical proficiency at all stages of life, promoting good governance, improving evidence-based decision making and mainstreaming the building of environmental sustainability and climate change as cross-cutting areas. This is an ambitious undertaking which must be appropriately resourced and financed comprehensively and expeditiously. Governments must move with haste. The bank is a willing partner seeking new avenues and partnerships to fund the region's growth and development. While more capital is required, much more work also lies ahead. The bank continues its pursuits zealously, recognizing that we have and will always consider the impact of our inputs on the lives of those evident behind the numbers. I thank you and I now hand over to my colleague Anne-Marie Warner, Deputy Director of Corporate Strategy who will present the development review and forecast. Thank you, VPO. Ladies and gentlemen, our President set the context in charting the roadmap to a better future. The Vice President outlined actions necessary to reach the desired destination. And now I will discuss the distance to the finish line. Specifically, I will provide an overview of the region's performance in its quest to attain the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, more commonly known as the SDGs. I will also summarize how CDB is helping its BMCs to meet the SDGs, the challenges our countries face in pursuing their sustainable development agendas, and the reforms that are necessary between now and 2030 to ensure that we get as close as possible to our targets. Now the SDGs agreed in 2015 are a critical element of the framework on which CDB's resilience building efforts are anchored. These goals represent an agreed path or blueprint for people-centered development to ensure that our economies develop in a manner that is sustainable, inclusive, and equitable and where ultimately no one is left behind. 11 of CDB's 19 BMCs have aligned their national development plans with the SDGs, including setting measurable targets. For example, Jamaica has aligned its national and sector strategies with the SDGs and has identified 115 SDG targets as applicable to its reality. In Trinidad and Tobago, the SDGs are instituted as anchors under the national development themes in its 2030 national vision, such that reforms enacted to achieve the relevant themes would re-down to commitments under the 2030 agenda. So how have we been progressing on the SDGs? In general, as a region, we were making some progress up until 2019. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic contractions caused the distance to these targets to widen. And unfortunately, it has been the poorest and most vulnerable among us who have been the most affected. This underscores the urgency of getting back on track, because tracking and monitoring the SDGs is not an academic exercise. As the VPO stated, behind these numbers are people, families, and communities. Not surprisingly, the main SDGs negatively impacted by the economic dislocation of the last three years were SDG1, no poverty, and SDG8, decent work and economic growth. But what else has the data revealed in the region's march towards the SDGs? On the positive side, although there is room for improvement, BMCs are showing relatively good performance in relation to Goal 4, quality education, Goal 12, responsible consumption and production, and Goal 13, climate action. Slow but steady progress is being made in relation to Goal 6, clean water and sanitation, Goal 7, affordable and clean energy, and Goal 9, industry, innovation and infrastructure. However, the SDGs, such as Goal 14, life below water, 15, life on land, and 16, peace, justice, and strong institutions are almost universally under threat of under-achievement. So how has the bank been contributing to the region's attainment of the SDGs? And what does our reporting on development results tell us about the anticipated impact on people's lives? Every year, CDB produces the Development Effectiveness Review, or the DER, a comprehensive report on results achieved through interventions financed by the bank in our 19 BMCs. The DER assesses development trends, progress, and challenges encountered during the project cycle, while evaluating the results of CDB's interventions against objectives outlined in our strategic plan. The results indicate that CDB's interventions are having positive effects, and we are trending towards strategic plan targets in the areas of education and training, agriculture and rural development, community infrastructure, citizen security, economic infrastructure, private sector development, and environmental sustainability. But what do these indicators really mean for Caribbean lives? During the area of education, it means that more of our young people are better prepared for the labour market and have enhanced earning potential. Approximately 92,000 students, of whom about 44,500 were female, benefited from improved classroom conditions, enhanced teacher competence, and access to loan financing. And over 2,000 teachers, 75% of whom were female, were trained. As the region's most valuable asset, our youth need to be engaged as valued partners in development and safeguarded against violence and exploitation. Against this background, since the start of 2020, over 1,700 young persons of whom about 800 are female have benefited from youth at risk programs that provided life skills and training to improve employability prospects and provided outlets for recreation and creative expression. Under the rubric of agricultural productivity and food security, we have made progress in supporting the region's efforts to ensure that we grow and produce more food of our own. Over 3,200 stakeholders, most of whom are female, have been trained in improved production technology and over 7,100 persons have benefited from improved agriculture, land management, and climate smart agricultural practices. Access to a safe, reliable, and efficient water supply is a necessity for the health and economic well-being of our people. We have been able to provide nearly 57,000 households with access to improved sanitation and running water. Additionally, getting to work and school and conducting business has been made easier for 234,000 more people who now have access to resilient roads and other infrastructure funded by CDB. Between 2020 and 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when small businesses were facing tremendous economic pressure, $9 million in credit was made available to support over 100 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, MSMEs. In addition, nearly 2,000 MSMEs benefited from targeted technical assistance in areas such as general management and business development, digitalization and technology application, market access, youth entrepreneurship, and institutional strengthening. Regarding environmental sustainability, since 2020, CDB has provided 2.3 megawatts of renewable energy, RE, generation capacity. However, to achieve CARICOM's ambitious RE targets, the region would need to install over 300 megawatts of RE capacity every year. Therefore, going forward and in collaboration with the private sector, we will ramp up our investment in this space. Notably, since 2020, 57.3 gigawatt hours of energy savings have been realized as a result of our energy efficiency interventions, and our support for RE and for energy efficiency have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by over 28,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. While there has been some progress on the SDGs, and the bank has been making a contribution to these positive development outcomes, there is still a long way to go if the targets are to be met. So what further actions should be taken? As the President has indicated, the region's financing needs are enormous, much more than CDB alone can provide. Therefore, there is a need to crowd in resources, and in particular, concessional resources to help BMCs meet their gross financing needs and achieve their SDG targets. Our Vice President's operations already noted some recent agreements in this area. But since 2020, we have been able to attract over $550 million from donors and our contributors to advance regional development, and we will continue to seek out other sources of financing to support the improvement of social and economic conditions and enhance the quality of life of Caribbean people. To advance the pace towards the SDGs, countries will also need to strengthen their institutional capacity to implement policies and projects in a more timely manner so that results can be delivered faster to the people. The bank is in the process of crafting assistance to support the region in this regard. The first and critical component of this process is diagnosis. And during 2023, the bank will conduct an assessment to determine those binding constraints that hinder BMC's implementation efforts. From that assessment, a program of reforms will be crafted. Still focusing on actions to be taken, we believe that in order to improve targeting and the tracking of SDGs, the region must focus on the production of timely, relevant and frequent statistics and undertake more discovery and diagnosis and transformation of available knowledge. We need to be able to produce metrics that allow us to monitor progress, make comparisons with other countries, and attribute outcomes to sources of finance. Simply put, we must measure better to target better. Our recent efforts in this regard have seen us providing support through CARICOM for national housing and population census activities. CDB is also focusing on improving the evidence base needed for regional development through a series of enhanced country poverty assessments with members of the organization of eastern Caribbean states and other countries such as Belize. These assessments will provide an accurate and up-to-date picture of the poverty situation in BMC's, which will help policymakers to more effectively target the most vulnerable. Ultimately, it is clear that as a region, we have much to do to achieve our SDG targets. Our progress was interrupted by the pandemic, and even now, global events such as the war in Ukraine are limiting economic recovery. This means that BMC's will need to prioritize meeting their SDG targets when using the resources available. However, this will require good quality data to inform policy choices, support effective implementation, and facilitate accurate monitoring and evaluation. CDB will support the BMC's in carrying out these activities effectively, consistent with its drive to promote better and targeted development decisions. To conclude, CDB will continue to work with the BMC's in pursuit of their SDG targets by seeking to crowd in further concessional resources, by supporting improvements in project implementation, and by providing sound evidence-based policy advice. These will complement the BMC actions recommended by the President and the VPO, such as improving public financial management, enhancing food security and trade, and improving the business environment so that the private sector can play a greater role. Unreservedly, CDB's focus remains on facilitating sustainable development throughout the region to ensure thriving economies, stable societies, and living conditions that enable our people to achieve their full potential. Our journey to a better future continues at an accelerated pace. Thank you. Thank you very much, colleagues. For the question and answer segment, we're asking members of the media whether you're joining us in person or online to please raise your physical or virtual hand and wait to be acknowledged. If you're online, please mute, please unmute rather, and you can turn on your camera if you wish and pose your questions. Online participants can also drop their questions in the chat, and I will ask them on your behalf. Now, the floor is open, but I have to tell you, our colleagues in the virtual space have been very quick out of the block, so we're going to throw it into Cyberland first. And David Jordan of Caribbean News Global, you have the opportunity to pose the first question. David, so I guess we'll just move to the room first, and then we'll go back online once we have that up and running. And first out of the blocks is Tamika. Tamika, please, go ahead. Tamika Garnett from The Guy in the Chronicle. For my first question, I would like, last year, the CARCOM established the 25 by 25 to move towards better food security. Can the CDB say a little bit about what their role is in 25 by 25? How important a role does the bank expect to play? What has the bank done so far, if anything, in terms of engaging with CARICOM for how they can play their role? And if anything is planned for 2023 and beyond, and does the bank feel that the paces which we're moving with 25 by 25 is enough? I hope that wasn't too much. That's my starting question. I think that's afterwards. Daniel, our director of finance. Thank you. Thank you so much for the question, Tamika. So we welcome the initiative by the CPSO and head of the government to reduce the food import bill by 25% by 2025. And I'm actually pleased to announce that we are partnering with CARICOM. We've launched a technical assistance study looking at regional maritime cargo transport between Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Grenada, focused on the movement of agricultural produce, recognizing that we have within our region the capacity to supply our food important needs. But I would hasten to add that food, I was going to say sustainability, but as the president introduced the term, food sovereignty extends actually beyond the 25 by 25. And it really needs to be underpinned by climate smart agriculture, by capacity training to our farmers, to our producers. And what have we been doing in that? So there are a few initiatives I'd like to touch on, which I think you'd see frame the 25 by 25 picture a little bit better. In Grenada and St. Lucia, for instance, we are seeking to improve supply chain for intra-Caribbean agri-trade by providing technical assistance to the developers, the players within that space. In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, we're providing certification for livestock production and trade, again to our farmers. And there's also technical assistance in St. Lucia and in St. Lucia for the export of fresh produce. So how does this all tie together? I want to bring the example of what we're doing in Essex Valley in Jamaica and the Southern Plays Agricultural Development Project in Jamaica, where we are providing through the UK, Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund, 700 hectares of land are being outfitted with modern irrigation systems, drainage facilities, and 700 farmers, including, of course, women and the youth, are benefiting from this new improved agricultural, what would have been, arable land to develop their crops. It also goes beyond this in that there is the need to provide international food certification standards, training to farmers, but also pack host facilities such that our farmers can't access international and domestic markets, reaching the requisite quality standards. So again, within our EPOS-CSME standby facility, we've done quite a bit of work in improving quality standards, supporting our institutions that treat with quality, but also dealing with sanitary and phytosanitary conditions. So it is a wraparound approach to development within the agri-space to ensure that our region can supply its food in poor needs, or its food needs, rather. And as such, we perhaps would not have encountered some of the challenges we faced during the pandemic, recognizing that we can meet the quality of food delivery within our own member countries. I have a follow-up question to that. Now, we see a lot being done to assist from the side of the getting the production up, but we have acknowledged that a big challenge with achieving our food security is getting our own people now to adopt, eating our own, consuming our own, which we're in that needs a whole cultural change, because as we can see, the Caribbean consumes 80% of its food supply from overseas. So will there be any role of the CDB in helping the countries now to work towards that cultural change, that mindset change of our people, particularly where it comes to the tourism sector, I think, Prime Minister Mia Motley had mentioned that last year at a conference, when she said a lot of the tourists coming in are also depending on the international products. So how do we go about and what role would the CDB play in getting the Caribbean now to move towards accepting what we produce as what we will consume? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for the follow-up, Tamika. So it's an ecosystem approach to agri-development and you're quite right. What you're speaking to is, as you said, a mindset change. So as part of our projects, what we're seeking to do is to support our countries, support our business, support our organizations, support our MSMEs in driving that message of the quality of locally produced agri-products. But equality needs to be there first. Persons need to know that the food produced in Guyana, in Suriname and Barbados, wherever, is of an international quality. And so we first started, that is what undergores the entire ecosystem. The other point I would make, of course, is that our agricultural sector development policy and strategy speaks to the value chain approach to agri-development. So, of course, on one end we have our small farmers, our bona fide farmers, the larger farmers, but we also have the end purchasers, the large corporations within our region. And we have the stakeholders, such as us, the consumers. So we have treated with the entire value chain and designed initiatives to touch each point on that value chain. And, of course, a big part of that would be public awareness and building confidence in what we produce in our region. I think that is what will drive the cultural shift when we start to accept that we are producing food of a quality that is accepted anywhere internationally. If, for a minute, I have one more question before we move around the room. I'm moving from the... Yeah, well, there. ...the 25x25. Mr. Isaac spoke about the impact what the CDB is doing in Haiti. Can we get some specific about what impact the CDB interventions are having? We are seeing the countries continuing to have issues more and more. Can the CDB speak on the impact and what achievements those interventions are making in the country? Okay, so thank you for the question. So, as I said in the presentation, Haiti is of real concern to us. We recognize that given what is happening in Haiti, that a political solution is absolutely necessary for us to move the development in a way that we want to. And so that we need to call out early. But our interventions in Haiti, fortunately, are not affected to any large degree by the gang violence that is taking place now, simply because where our interventions are and where the gang violence is taking place there in different parts of Haiti. So our development agenda is proceeding. I have to acknowledge, though, that with the continued violence and the longer we take to bring Haiti to some state of stability, not only CDB, but all of our development partners will have challenges intervening in Haiti in the way that we'd want to. It is not the ideal conditions we'd want to be working in, but at least for the moment, our interventions are ongoing. Daniel, could you speak to some of the specific projects we have? Thanks for that. Thanks for the question, Tamika. I think the main interventions that we are focused on would be in the TVET space, where we have been able to complete four technical and vocational educational training centers, which, you know, significantly impacted the human capital development efforts within Haiti. Another one that we are actively developing is mini-grade systems within, you know, some of the rural sections of Haiti, recognizing, of course, that energy, well, we support energy security here, but the problem is perhaps sharpest within the Haitian environment. And if we could take sections of the populace off of the grid and rely on renewable energy sources, we would go a long way into supporting the energy security efforts. The other one, of course, is our cultural and creative industries innovation fund, or CIF Haiti. Again, we know about the wider regional CIF program, but we designed one specifically for Haiti, which sought to mine some of the creative talents within the space, providing them with opportunities to develop their projects, the creatives, but also providing them with financial training, literacy and also whole CIF grantees treat with creatives. You know, I think many times we see the challenges within our region of creatives attempting to do business, attempting to write proposals and falling short. And so what we have sought to do within Haiti is to provide the creatives with the necessary capacity training not only to develop their projects, but also to be able to access resources such that they can operate at a scale to provide for their families and build livelihoods within the creative space. So that's another area that we are particularly proud of within the Haitian environment. And I touched on TVET, of course, but in total there's approximately 15,000 students that will benefit from our education programs in Haiti. And how we treat it with that is not just in terms of curricular development, but also the wraparound services in terms of providing nutrition support for many of the students who really require this level of support and for the parents and children and parents and guardians of these children to ensure that they receive quality education, both in terms of in the school environment, but also when they are at home as well. So this, I think, is a broad picture of what we've been doing. So Daniel, allow me to put some more color on the renewable energy intervention. You spoke about the mini-grade intervention. I don't think it's something that we should really lose sight of in terms of the impact. If there is any one country in the region where we can say there is energy poverty, it is in Haiti because a significant population portion of the population do not have access to even regular fossil fuel generated energy. And if you're close to the violence that is taking place there, part of it was around the high price of energy. So I think the intervention takes a lot of boxes from a development standpoint. Yeah. And finally, of course, the payment of the CRIF Premium, the Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility, CDB has supported Haiti in past years with the payment of the premium on that insurance facility which came in very handy as we know a few years back when they received quite a massive payment, a payout with the passage of adverse weather events. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. And we're going to go to one of our virtual participants now. And this is the veteran Earl Busque of The Voice newspaper in St. Lucia. Earl, the floor is yours. Glad to have been given the opportunity to participate today. What I would also like to do is to ask two questions. One, we've heard about the impact of Guyana's oil resources and its growth projections on improving the growth projections of the wider Caricom region and also within the wider Latin American region. But I've also asked myself, do we really understand or fully appreciate and perhaps you could help those of us who can, the extent to which the application of Guyana's growth figures, which are domestic to a regional and Latin American and Caribbean level, to what extent does that help the non-oil producing territories whose growth prospects would have been different and lower had it not been for Guyana's growth figures. So the impact of Guyana's growth figures on the prospects for non-oil producing Caricom countries is the question. The second has to do with, again, energy security. As we all know, Guyana has been the underreported story across Caricom for the past two years in so far as the returns of investments, returns on investments in oil and gas. And quite a lot is happening there. Guyana also is hosting an annual energy conference in February in which domestic Suriname and international partners participate. And I was wondering the extent to which the CDB is part of this conference and within the context of the search for alternative energy resources. I wanted to ask whether the CDB's approach is to go with projects that are proposed at domestic levels. But to what extent are we looking at region-wide approaches to energy security in terms of harvesting our sun, our wind, our water, our rain, our waves, other developing countries in the world have found innovative ways to put these resources that cross barriers and air spaces. If we are talking about a common regional approach to energy security, is there any program that looks at recommending the sort of regional approaches that will look at harnessing those wider resources? Like I said, the sun, wind, water, rain and, of course, our waves. Thank you. So, Ian, I think you'll take the first question and then Daniel, we will throw it to you for the energy security question. And of course, the rest of the panelists can add color, as you would say, VP. Ian, over to you, please. OK. All right. Thanks for the question. So the growth rate, the estimated growth rate for Guyana in 2022 is 62.3 percent. And we are projecting a growth rate of 21.2 percent for 2023. Now, Guyana is a very important boring member country and a very important part of the region. As Guyana becomes more prosperous and as trading links among the boring member countries are strengthened. And of course, this has been the stated intention of the heads of government, not only within the whole food security space, but also even broader than that. Obviously, there's going to be the effect of Guyana and the prosperity that occurs in Guyana as a result of oil lifting all of the other countries. So so there's a symbiotic relationship that results from high growth in any any one BMC and the impact that that has on other BMCs. But the critical thing is to strengthen those those trading linkages so that so that, you know, the wealth is spread, if you like. OK, so thanks. Thanks for the question. The first off as it relates to the conference in Guyana, yes, we will be in attendance, obviously, as you quite rightly mentioned, to engage with the key stakeholders there. Now, in terms of a regional approach to energy security, I'm quite pleased to advise that through the Green Climate Fund and CDB being accredited to the Green Climate Fund, we have been able to develop a program entirely integrated utility services program through which we are partnering with utilities in the region. We've started with four countries in the region to provide the initial capital outlay to homeowners and small businesses for solar PV for distributed energy sources, specifically solar PV. What is innovative about this approach is that it affords homeowners who initially may not have been able to be able to afford the capital outlay for a solar PV system. But with utilities accessing these concessional resources from CDB, they can now purchase these distributed energy sources and pay for it through the existing bills that they receive from utilities. So it's a bill paid type arrangement. And at the end of, of course, you know, the the requisite period, they would now own the distributed energy system. We also partnering and this is in partnership, of course, with the Caribbean Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, or CICRI. We also partnering with CICRI in developing integrated resource resilience plans for our borough member countries, recognizing again that there needs to be a holistic approach to energy security. It cannot be ad hoc in many of our countries. Many of our governments administrations, we're quite pleased to say, are locked in to this type of approach. So we're working with CACRI Come through the organ that is CICRI to develop integrated resource resilience plans. Finally, I would, you know, this is perhaps sounding a bit heretic. We are seeking to explore how hydrocarbon benefits can support sustainable energy and in touching on this, what we and is anchored in our new energy policy, which was approved at the end of December last year. Really, that linkage is seeking to develop products such as green hydrogen, utilizing the energy that is produced from hydrocarbons and sources to develop green energy and more particularly green hydrogen. We believe that we have within the region the source, whether it's hydrocarbon or renewable energy sources and demand as if we were to look at the Trinidad and morning industry, for instance, to really be the center of the universe for the development of green hydrogen globally. So this is something that is anchored within our energy sector policy and strategy and something we will be working in tandem with our governments to see how we how we develop this again, a holistic approach to energy security. President. Errol, I'd like to add a couple of points. The first is to make the distinction that growth as a measure of activity must never lose sight of the development goal that we are interested in. So when we zero in on saying that Guyana's growth is it showing in a biased way the importance of the regional number that we are talking about and what happens to the rest of the region, I think we should always keep in mind that that is always a facilitator. It's a facilitator because if Guyana grows, the question we should be asking is how do we forge one of the points I raised in my introduction, regional cooperation and collaboration so that the dividend of that growth now generates and provides opportunities for development outcomes. And so even the follow up question about projects, we need to rethink what we mean by projects because projects are far too discretized as a beginning and an end, a success, a failure, a partial success. The development we are talking about requires projects to be linked over time, requires projects to be linked horizontally at a point in time across different dimensions of development. So when we talk a holistic approach to development, we always have to keep that in mind. Let's look at outcomes temporarily. Outcomes of the end goal and how we get there by stringing horizontally, vertically, across time so that we get a genuine sense of what's happening now and how it is benefiting the region. But it underscores, and again the points that Daniel made, underscores the need for regional cooperation and not regional cooperation now. What do we need to do to strengthen, to make more effective the means of cooperation that we can all benefit from the activity, the growth elements we are seeing in any place in the region at any point in time. Daniel, you wanted to pull stuff from the discussion. Just a very, very minor point because I don't want to be headlines. I wasn't saying that hydrocarbon sources should be used to generate green energy. We know that's great energy. I'm talking about the benefits from hydrocarbon development, the funding used to move into creation of green hydrogen. Just a fine point. And we know the clarification. Thank you very much. Javon. Good morning, everyone. Javon Key is the radio and television maker. So my question, I'll have a few questions, but I'll start with three briefly. An extension to what you've said so far, Dr. Leon. I mean, in your presentation, you had a number of calls to action, including that of the revival of the CSME. I wanted to find out from you what would that revival look like and do you think that the CSME in its current framework is applicable now? And if not, what would those changes need to look like to ensure that it fits the current needs? That's my first. My second is looking at external trade relations. And I know the CDBU in particular has spoken about the fact that the global trade relations and their frameworks need to change to have us as a region better be able to benefit from those relations. So could you speak a little bit more to what those frameworks would look like? And my final question for now is to Ian regarding the gross financing needs. Could you provide a breakdown, possibly, of that $10 billion throughout the borrowing member countries? If I can start, everyone. The CSME, if we can think of it as a dream, had a specific outcome in mind, which was that not only would goods be able to move freely, be able to be produced at various points, but the activity, the generation, the sourcing, the origination of the ideas, the finance, the investment would make it such that we could see a seamless set of activity and hence the moniker single market. Now, why is it that we are not there? There is probably three pronged. There's a political policy. There's a activity at the level of institutions. Let's say private sector. And then there's a people level, which is partly linked to the point Tamika was making. How do we get to accepting what is within the space? All three things need to come together to allow you to genuinely say what is will be produced, is desired. There's a demand. There's an acceptance. There's a quality. There's a control. And it can be moved. It can be transported. It can be sold in a sense that makes it whole. And the points we've made, one on cooperation, two on a regional psyche of what is ours and how we control it, the sovereignty element we talked about, the financing from a regional space opening up the capital markets to allow you to be able to undertake those, the partnerships between the public and the private sector we talked about, the partnership for prosperity and profits. And how do we leave a dream of what the region looks like, providing all with sustainable livelihoods over time, which is equitable, peaceful, secure, that you want to be able to live here, defines that dream of ACSME. So even if I am calling for a renewed commitment, I'm really saying all the things that I'm saying we need to do. I already embedded in that CSME dream. So it is a call for action to re-engineer, re-imagine development as we understand it in the region and what we need to do to actually get there. And I think if we do that, the CSME dream becomes totally alive. And on the point of external trade. The point on external trade, I think we spoke about this previously, it is, again, we need to re-imagine what trade looks like. Trade in goods, trade in services, trade across, whether you want to call it South-South, North-South, circular. And what's the foundation of that? And the foundation of that we believe can be anchored on what I've called knowledge creation products. Because this is the one area the region does not have a comparative disadvantage in. And if we can mobilize that through the appropriate mechanisms, whether it be on intellectual property rights in focus on the creative industries, on the ability to harness services that we can produce and ensuring that at the global level those are accepted, they are integrated within the trade infrastructures that exist. And we can do it in a way that satisfies the norms of markets and the norms of protocols of various agencies. Then we have an opportunity to crack and break these trade barriers that we are facing now. And Ian for GFN. Right, so first of all, let me reiterate the definition of GFN. It's basically the sum of what is created as a result of the overall deficits that countries run as far as their operations are concerned. And then what is required for amortization. Now the 10 billion to which reference was made is pretty much half and half. And that is largely because as a result of the pandemic, what we saw is an increase in or deterioration in overall balances, which meant that the overall balance component of the gross financing needs increased. Just to say that prior to the onset of the pandemic, those overall balances, those overall deficits on average were declining or improving however you want to put it. Largely because countries were focusing on streamlining operations and basically trying to keep debt sustainability in view. The pandemic caused a peak, which generated the 10 billion. But what we are seeing as far as the future is concerned is a continued commitment to improving fiscal performance so that over time that overall deficit component of the gross financing needs are projected to decline. Now of course the amortization component is a little bit more stable. Those are contractual relationships based on past debt. So that's what we're talking about as it relates to GFN and I've also given you a flavor of how it evolves. Now having said all that, these estimates are based on the existing policy frameworks of governments currently articulated policy frameworks, what they said they intend to do. But we recognize of course and we've said it on many occasions that if we are going to hit the SDGs by 2030 really we need to increase expenditure. And of course increasing expenditure has to be properly immersed within the whole notion of maintaining a focus on debt sustainability. But of course hitting the SDGs has a number of development impacts and delivers dividends inclusive of generating growth, which is the denominator in your debt sustainability analysis. So there's a sort of a fine line that has to be warped in terms of, as we see it, increasing capital expenditures to make sure you hit those SDGs, but basically keeping an eye on debt sustainability. And that requires, and we've also been saying this frequently, increasing access to extremely concessional resources, the optimal of which would be grant resources to make sure that you don't compromise as the region seeks to achieve and hit the SDGs, the debt sustainability is not compromised. Thank you, Ian. Camille, let me just add one rider here. Yes, we need to anchor always on debt sustainability. But recall when we talk of debt sustainability you are talking of debt sustainability of the sovereign, the government. That presupposes that the expenditure, Ian referred to, that is tackling the structural weaknesses we have. And the expenditure needed to get us to meet our SDG goals need come only and only from the sovereign. That is where the financing need issue arises. Do we have enough revenues to meet the added expenditure without blowing up our debt? And if we cannot get concessional financing, then the debt sustainability criteria is gone. But what about, again the clarion call we made, this partnership with the private sector? Can we induce the private sector to see public value propositions in development outcomes that can crowd in private sector financing? Therefore no increase in public sector debt that can meet the expenditure that will move you in the space of your SDGs guarantee the outcome of improved sustainability of lives and at the same time do this in a way that can still provide for profits and prosperity without the albatross of the debt sustainability of the public space. And you only do that through a partnership, partners in development. Partnerships for profit and prosperity, president, as you outline. Al Edwards, we are turning the microphone over to you. Hello, good morning. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Good morning, Camille. Good morning, Jean. I see Javon moving to the panel and to all fellow media practitioners. This is a question for Jean. Jean, I've heard your vision for the Caribbean and I concur. But let me ask you, how best can we improve regional air transportation? It's imperative for VR to be effective as a trading block and for all the reasons you just outlined. I also want to ask is working progress to remove visas across the region so our people can work and travel freely across the Caribbean? And then as my last question, it pertains to the Caribbean Court of Justice. Here in Jamaica, there's a lot of talk now about becoming a republic, but yet we don't have our final appellate court as the Caribbean Court of Justice. What is your view on the role of the Caribbean Court of Justice and does it have to be a central figure of how we work as a region? Thank you very much. Al, you almost told me I need to have my lawyers with me. No, but let me start with the transportation issue. I think Daniel or Isaac may have touched on this already. The transportation issue has to be seen in its entirety of an ecosystem. There is one, the assets that will be required. There's the financing of those assets that will be required. There's the legal framework and environment within which those will be deployed. There's the collaboration, the connectivity, the networking that would need to be ensured to be able to make it work. There's the demand for the services that needs to be adequate and appropriate. There's the costing and the management that needs to be done such that it's operating efficiently. And then you have to have the political arrangements in place that would say we are all benefiting from this. Networks cannot exist in segments. Networks have to exist in their entirety. And so connectivity of a network becomes the global public good, the value of any air transportation. Now obviously they will not all be as economic in every segment in the particular way. So whatever the solution we have to find must be able to bridge the fact that you have to have some form of pricing that covers the entire needs of the entire region. And so it's not a trivial exercise. And what we are looking at now is how can we provide a framework, provide guidance on what does the region need to be able to make it work because we believe it is essential that the region cannot go forward without solving the transportation problem that we have now. And it will require two steps or two phases to be honest now. The first phase is in my mind very clear. As I described it, we have a crisis especially in parts of the region where you cannot move from one country to the other without necessarily getting a visa to go through the US as a connecting point. So a young kid or young adult, 20, 22 years looking to move from one country to the next has to get approval of a visa to enter through the United States even if there is no business in the United States. And the United States will reserve the right to be able to say we will or will not give you a visa totally separate from whether or not you had any interest in even going to visit the United States. Now that is a major problem not only for the people but equally for our heads of state, our governments because those people have to be able to say we reserve the right as citizens to be able to move across the region. Now if we are citizens of the region why can't we ask for that right to be able to move freely across the region? And so transportation is part of the CSME issue that we have to solve. And so we need to solve this urgent part now and how we do it may or may not be optimal or efficient but we need to get a service going. And then in parallel to that I think we need now to have a full blown optimal solution that for example looks at future technologies. Why can't we begin to task our people, our researchers in the region, in the diaspora, at universities exploring the I wanna call it retrofitting or refitting of our small airlines with electricity powered engines hydrogen powered engines. Why can't we do this? We don't have the issue of traveling 3,000 miles, 6,000 kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean. We are talking 100 miles, 200 miles, 50 miles hopping across islands. Car technology already allows us to move if we can do adequate thrust and to maintain an aircraft in the air. These are longer term solutions that will in fact have an entire cascading of economic diversification and skills that can help push an entire new industry that can help us in our transportation. But that's a longer term issue. For now solve the immediate problem of providing services. Put in place now a program through which we can now get to the point where genuinely we have a network that covers the entire region in a cost effective way, in a way that gives every Caribbean citizen the right to move across any of the islands without having to go outside of the region. And president you still have to go to court? Oh, I will, I do need legal advice here. I do need legal advice here. But no, the issue of the ICC, or not ICC, the ECJ is for me a institutional resilience element of our development ecosystem. And once we've identified the ultimate goals of development, then the question is what institutions are fit for purpose? What institutions will allow the rest of the infrastructure to be able to hang together? And if that is best served when we take a look at it by a Caribbean court of justice, then I have no doubt in my mind that this is what's required. Now, then you would need to ask the question of timing. When, what structure? How is it going to be applied? What safeguards, operational issues? But now that really is the domain of the lawyers. I wouldn't be able to articulate those. But let's put it in the context of what institutional frameworks are required to allow for production, to allow for financing, to allow for social development, to allow for saving of the planet, such that when you bring those together, we have a smooth running, secure environment within which everyone, their rights, their physical being, is secure, is safe, they can live in a state of peace, a state of contentment, and can have sustainable livelihoods. Thank you, President. Now, we have a number of journalists online who have been, I'm asking for the opportunity to pose questions. So Dennis Chabral, I'm going to ask you to ask your question next please. Thank you, good morning everyone. I would like to know what exactly is done by the CDB to provide a regional ferry service for boats and passengers where does the dynamite service to such an options or plan as? Thank you. Daniel? Yes, so thank you. I think it was Dennis, thank you. So we touched on that just a little bit earlier. Absolutely, we have received a mandate from heads of government. I incurred the need for regional food security, regional food sovereignty to support the movement, the sustainable movement of maritime cargo between Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Grenada. So in the first instance, starting in the Southern Caribbean with a view to expanding northwards to the North Caribbean and to that end, we have already brought a consultancy on board looking of course, not just at the ferry service but also all that will go in to sustainable food security. So the consultants are working towards that and we expect to have the initial findings within the interim report, within the next couple of months with a view to having the full report towards the end of the third quarter of this year which will provide a roadmap for a sustainable movement of cargo certainly in the first instance and more specifically agri produce in the Southern Caribbean with a view to move northward. Thank you, Daniel. And next we'll go to Courtney Menzies from 7 News and Belize. Courtney. Hi, good morning. I have two questions. My first question is coming out of COVID, Belize continues to show double digit GDP growth. Our third quarter was at 12.3%. How does this compare to the rest of the region? And my second question is for member countries which rely on the productive sector, how much is the cost of inputs mainly fertilizer and fuel costs affecting agricultural production? Okay, so thank you for the question. So in 2022, Belize is estimated to have grown by 8.5%. How does that compare with the region? The region, the average for the region was 10.3% for 2022. If we exclude Guyana, the average was 4.9%. If we compare Belize with other service exporters, the service exporter average was 4.6%. So that's the sort of, that's the comparison. I think that the performance suggests that Belize is recovering, or at least the tourism industry is recovering faster than the rest of the region. So that has been the experience with, that has been the experience with Belize compared with the rest of the region. I think part two for you, Daniel. That's part two. The most part two, right? The what? The agriculture? Sorry, I'm sorry. Courtney, would you just like to repeat the second part of your question? Of course, I can ask you that. Sure, the second question was for member countries that rely on the productive sector, how much is the cost of the inputs mainly fertilizer and the cost of fuel affecting their agricultural production? Oh, I think that's back over to Ian. You can tag team it, gentlemen. So what I will say is that inflation continues to be high, albeit falling. So prices are continuing to rise, but not at the rate that we were seeing last year. And obviously, that is having implications for the productive, that is having implications for the cost of the productive sectors. I think what some of the things that we need to do in response to that, well, before we get to the policy prescriptions, let me say that potentially this has implications for the competitiveness of the productive sectors and the ability to compete on global markets. So that is something that we have to keep our eyes on. And of course, price increases may start in fuel, they may start in fertilizer, but they are transmitted throughout the rest of the economy. So even though the impetus may be provided by products like wheat or urea or oil, those increases are transmitted throughout the economy. So they have implications for the entire economy and the ability of the economy to be productive. So that is something that has to be borne in mind. How do you, I think what is necessary is to ensure that as individual countries you sort of control to the extent that you can the impact of that transmission to the rest of the economy and the extent to which it has the potential to impact on the competitiveness of individual countries. I think that perhaps the best way to deal with the inflation situation is through social compacts to ensure that you don't create a wage price spiral that then has adverse implications for the competitiveness of the economies, the ability for the productive sectors to compete on the global stage. So in essence, I think what we are suggesting is pretty much to ensure that wage increases are contained, that labor, that government, that the private sector leadership come together and on the basis of symmetric information, pretty much ensure that wage increases are sufficient to ensure that wages are livable, but you don't have overshooting of wage increases that then adversely affects the competitiveness of economies. So that's how I would respond to the question. Thanks, Ian. Now I'm aware that time is counting down, so but we do want to allow our guests from the media to get in as many questions as possible. So I'll ask you to keep the questions succinct and we will keep the answers succinct as well. John, you have been very patient and it is your turn. Good morning. Good morning. John Tench, NBC Prime, St. Lucia. Regional cooperation and regional integration were cited as one of the means through which the CDB would achieve its objectives. However, how does the bank seek to navigate through individual island states, politics and stuff like that in order to achieve its objectives in the long run? And so I'm asking really about how does the bank seek to to transcend individual island politics in order to achieve its objectives? And that's question number one. And the second question, piggybacks of that, Mr. President, when you were speaking, you said that the bank would sort of regulate or try to promote transparent spending of individual governments in the region. And so how would the bank seek to address and accomplish that? Thank you. I will surely allow Ian to take the second question. I don't think exactly what I said, but let me start on the first question. Regionalism and regional cooperation will always follow what you can call the trinity problem that we can conceptualize, and it goes as follows. I cannot have integration, have sovereignty, and have development outcomes that are coordinated all at the same time. When you say how do you get the individual heads to, in a sense, coordinate, what you're effectively saying is they need to let go of some of their sovereignty. Now, I cannot dictate how much sovereignty, heads duly elected, heads of government will be willing to give up, but what I can do is I can indicate the benefit to the whole of cooperation and collaboration in whatever space that they choose to want to work together on. And I don't think it is an impossibility to get them, and we have organs and experience in the region that talk about how we bring heads together as a means of. And so part of what we do is work with other institutions like CARICOM and other agencies of CARICOM that interface, in the case of St. Lucia, as you mentioned, the OECS region, that work in that space because you always need to blend governments, economies, and people. And they are not separable. I cannot have a government if I do not have the people satisfied with the actions and outcomes of the government. And I cannot have an economy doing well enough to keep the people happy if the government cannot facilitate this one way or the other. And so when I started by talking about the Trinity, the bottom line is we always have to make choices. We always have to trade off among competing needs that will get us to where we need to get. And that particular line becomes equally one of those choices that the region has to make at all levels, the economic level, the political level, and the people level, such that we can agree on the outcome. The outcome has to be the development of the peoples of the region. Once we agree there, then we have to work backwards. We need to do trade-offs. We need to agree. Not to disagree. Agree how we are going to work together better. But I cannot dictate that. I can only help facilitate it. Yeah. Just to add a little color to what you've just said and the question, I think we probably have to take that in two parts, though, because we don't have in the region, and especially in the sub-region of the OECS, a lot of that take in place where governments have given up some of their sovereignty over national goods. So you have, for example, in the telecommunication space where governments have agreed to allow an independent entity to have control over the electromagnetic spectrum. It's a public good. And so all governments have given up that right to an independent authority to then issue licenses to telecommunications providers, et cetera. And I think the OECS has a lot of other examples like that. I think there may be a little further ahead than the rest of the Cairo-Com region. But I think we have to look at that question through those two lens. And then, of course, if we have to improve the functionality of the CSMASU, right, they say there has to be an enhanced level of cooperation among countries. John, I'm just going to ask you to briefly repeat your first or quickly repeat your second question. Right, it was just about ensuring transparency and accountability within government spending in the individual island states. The issue was to do with public financial management and how we make choices that yield to more accountability in spending, as well as the efficiency of that spend to meet outcomes. And so I said Ian will can take that question. Yeah, so thanks for the question. Of course, I guess as the president alluded to, transparency and general improvement in public financial management systems is very important to us recognizing, of course, the potential to improve outcomes. Ensuring that those outcomes are strongly linked to development objectives. Ensuring that there's value for money so that your procurement systems are strong. Ensuring that the budget process is transparent and there's reporting. A lot of this requires freedom of information legislation, which is something that really needs to be emphasized. But in essence, ensuring that there's accountability such that monies are spent in a way that is obvious to the citizen as it relates to where, how, then, et cetera. So those are to my mind are some of the things that are necessary. Of course, procurement is a particular interest of ours largely because it really has the potential, one way or the other, to improve value for money and ensure that the country is getting maximum bang for the buck that is spent. If I could just add a quick way to that with respect to what we're doing tangibly. We are actually currently supporting procurement reform, the procurement reform agenda of 10 of our barry member countries. And we're also, of course, the representative, the active member of the Caribbean chapter of the Inter-American Government Procurement Network. So along with the OECS procurement reform work that we've done, both phase one and phase two, we're extending that work, I'll say the OECS, to support the procurement reform agenda of our barry member countries. Thank you. OK, Deputy Director Warner, you've noted that despite COVID, the Caribbean actually made some progress on SDGs related to education and climate action. What was done differently that allowed progress to still advance on those areas? And are there lessons that can be applied now to other areas that have regressed or are under threat? OK, thank you. Thank you very much for the question. I think education, the focus on education is not something that's been recent. It's something that as a region we have worked tremendously hard to ensure that we enhance the human capital of our people. And so education has always been a priority. I would say for the regional governments. And I think we're seeing, and through COVID, we saw prominence and priority still being given to education. I was actually quite impressed when I saw the speed with which we were able to move primarily from teaching in a physical environment to one that was remote. Why were we able to make that change so quickly? Because it was a priority, we recognized that our children are future and we need to focus on education. And the bank, as I believe the vice president operations alluded, is focusing on is spearheading a let's reap program, which is really to help to try to reverse some of the learning losses that were, in fact, still unfortunately encountered. And I think across the region we had said that there were six to 16 months learning loss being experienced. And so I think that commitment to education, to ensuring that we mitigated the learning loss, I think that was very important. Similarly to in terms of the climate action, I think that has been a real priority for the region. And I mean, you see it. You see it in the various aspects. You see it as it relates to the thrust towards renewable energies moving a bit slowly, but we're still going to get there. And so I would say that it has been really, to my mind, the importance of these two areas at the political level. In terms of some of the other areas that have not been moving as quickly. And I think there are a couple of things that perhaps we need to do. As I alluded to in the presentation, one of the things we need to do is to ensure that we have the appropriate data available to allow us to be able to understand the baseline that we're coming from and where we're moving to. And also if we're going off track to ensure that we are able to get back on track. Also, I think with respect to, I should say, some of the countries that have advanced in a more holistic manner on the SDGs, they have been able to implement or they've been able to form SDG focal points within the government service. And those focal points, they represent a central repository and to some extent a central repository, but also a monitoring and coordinating role to ensure that those countries are still able to meet those targets. And I think also where possible, we need to look at our regional approach. Because there might be some of the SDGs, or certain aspects of the SDGs, might also benefit from a regional approach being taken. So those are just a few of the points that come to mind. And on another matter, the Director for Economics, when he was speaking to inflation, I think I just wanted to add that within this environment, targeting becomes extremely important. Inflation affects our people. And we need to ensure that we are targeting our expenditures, that governments are targeting their expenditures to the most vulnerable, to mitigate the impact of inflation on the most vulnerable. And I don't think that we should overlook the importance of targeting, because sometimes what happens is that in our social protection systems, we would see that there's quite a bit of fragmentation. And so you have situations where there might be errors of inclusion where people should be, who should not be receiving benefits, may in fact be receiving benefits. And then you also have errors of exclusion where persons who should be receiving are not receiving. So I think we really, within the current framework and within the current environment, and especially in this inflationary environment, we really need to look at the appropriate and effective targeting of our beneficiaries. Thank you. Thank you, Deputy Director. We have two final questions from journalists online. And the penultimate question will come from Peter Richards from CMC. Peter. Good afternoon to the panel and happy new year to everybody. I want to go back, if you don't mind, to revisit the question about regarding transportation. President Lea, the whole question where you say that the situation in the Eastern Caribbean is now at a crisis and you spoke about the flights being significantly reduced. At the same time, I also want to ask on the whole question that given the fact that last week or earlier this week, the Green Inner Prime Minister more or less moved from acquiring to subsidizing aircraft. President Lea, if you were in my shoes as a journalist reporting coming out of this CDB conference on the whole question of air transportation in the region, forget about the whole concept of you doing study and what have you. What message, if you were to write something for the ordinary man in the Caribbean regarding air transportation, what message would you be telling him now? Peter, that starts the moment when I turn to my vice president. Because I never studied journalism and I have no idea what you should be writing. But let me let Isaac start and I'll come in after, yeah. Thanks for the question, Peter. But Mr. President, I could say I never studied financing of economics in your experience, but I could still ask a question. Thank you. Thanks for the question, Peter. I think the message was given already that we do have to have a critical mass of political will for us to get to a harmonious solution, at least. We are encouraged because at least seven government approached us in August last year to begin the study that you didn't want to hear about. But at least it's the start of a process. And as the president said, the initial intervention is to ease the pain that we're feeling now. And the long-term intervention would be to treat with the entire ecosystem that addresses the cost of transportation, addresses the regulatory aspects, addresses the bottlenecks that are in place preventing folks from moving seamlessly from country to country. The president painted a very graphic picture of a young person wanting to move from one country to the next. And the inability of that person to do so without going through the United States. And we have stories from our parents and folks who were around for a long time who will tell you the experiences they had moving from country to country in the Eastern Caribbean. I have to tell you, too, that we treat this as a regional public good. And way back in 1970, the Caribbean Development Bank, one of its first loans as a regional public good, was to liat in the summer of 5.8 million United States dollars. So we've been in this game for a long time. But we're thinking that we do have an opportunity now to get it right. So if I can come back before the president comes in. Could I say, therefore, by 2024-2025, I am still going to be asking the same question? So I was going to give you your two lines. Line one is that all the governments in the region agree that the transportation nightmare that we have cannot continue. Point two, all the governments agree. And that is why they have asked for some partnership to help solve the problem. They agree that they need to do something and do it quick. Because the countries, the people are hurting. And point three, they also agree that they will do whatever is possible to start to solve the problem today. While we put together a solution that will be sustainable, viable over the long term. So your headline can be, help is coming. Help in which way? That's why you have a headline. Help is coming. You put the three sentences that I just gave. I think that's a fitting note now to go on to the anchor leg. And we're going to ask Aaron Humes from Breaking News Belize to ask the final question. Aaron? See, that's why we also need good internet and broadband. Connectivity. Feet on. Yes, Aaron, you're on. Yes, we can. OK, great. Good morning, it's still after Aaron Belize. But first, my question would be how does the bank feed with the issue of government asking to re-assign funds from loans or grants intended for projects to address more urgent issues that we saw with the pandemic? I believe that we can do that with at least one. If not, more loans, not CBB, but others. And can those go here and go here? So that the value to the project is to be lost. And then the second question would be how does the bank, how can the bank, that's financing the Petrocaribbean program from Venezuela in order to ensure region-wide access to oil products in order to reduce the cost of gas, especially diesel, which is used in the product sector? Thank you. The second question is on mine. I did you first. Ian is always there. You take the second question. So, yeah, throughout the, thanks for the question, throughout the pandemic, recognizing the fiscal constraints our countries are on, we looked at our portfolio of projects and determined what portions of the projects could be repurposed to meet the needs of the region. And essentially, of those that were hurting. So some of our education projects, certainly we sought to repurpose. And as a matter of fact, we also spoke to our partners within the donor community. And some members of the media may be familiar with the fact that we have a climate action lane of credit with the European Investment Bank. And in discussions with them, we carved out a 30 million of the 100 million focus on supporting the health sector within the Caribbean. So, you know, it is a partnership between CDB and our member countries. And we seek to see how, in instances where catastrophic events have occurred, how can we work with them to repurpose financing to meet more immediate needs in that snapshot of timing and space? And I'll leave you the second question. Ian, the final word is yours. Can I follow the leader? My colleagues, and leave that one alone. Look, what I will say, I don't know if I got the question exactly, correctly, but what I will say is that Petrocaribe is our bilateral, bilateral arrangements. And I don't know that we have the remit to, you know, to facilitate those bilateral discussions. Just let me know if I got the question right. Okay, so you're saying it's best that, it's not possible for CDB to assess with financing. I think we are aware of the issues that Venezuela has with the United States in terms of financing. But this is an assessment for the region in order to meet energy and economic needs. Because I believe that part of it proceeds to go to certain projects in each country. I don't believe, for instance, use some of the funds to build sporting stadiums and that sort of thing. So I get where you're coming from in terms of the bilateral arrangement. But I was wondering how CDB could assess it. Aaron, when you say assist, could you be a little bit more specific? That's in terms of the financial re-entrance. Can the CDB partner, I don't think that we are an associate or member of the band. But I think Director Durant underscored the parameters under which the fund operates. I don't know if there's anything further to add. I think that's it. Yes, I think. It's a bilateral arrangement. Yes. Okay, well, that's all then, thank you very much. Thank you very much. And on that note, we'll bring the proceedings to a close. But before we go, let me thank our panel, President Dr. Hygienus Jean Leon, Mr. Isaac Solomon, our Vice President Operations, Mr. Daniel Bess, the Director of Projects, Ian Durant, the Director of Economics, and Ms. Anne Marie Warner, Deputy Director of Corporate Strategy. A special thank you to the members of the media. Development is achieved through partnership and you are a particularly important partner because you help us to reach the public we serve and we look forward to working with you in the future on this journey to a better place. I would also like to thank everyone who joined us either in person or online. The dialogue will continue on our social media platforms and in other spaces where we engage. So let's keep this conversation going. God bless the Caribbean, the region we live in, work for, and love. I thank you.