 In that regard, I initiated measures to create the neighbouring environment for the youth of St. Lucia to access existing and emerging business opportunities by establishing the youth economy agency to convert hobbies into entrepreneurship and skills into business. The youth economy creates a special space in the economy with the necessary facilitation for youth-owned businesses to start, develop and grow. Our goal is to harness the skills, hobbies, talents and innovative capacity of our youth and channel this passion and creativity into successful businesses which can truly transform the lives of our people. In less than eight weeks, a total of 102 grants have been issued to young entrepreneurs in diverse areas ranging from agriculture, agro-processing, fashion, ICT, food and beverage. The youth economy agency will this week be graduating 92 young persons following an intensive free-week business training programme. Successful participants will each receive an injection of $5,000 to bring their plans to life. The youth economy agency has already conducted free business mixtures. Mixtures at Grossly Denuion Library will suffer to come later this week. The youth economy agency has also launched its mentorship programme, but the most encouraging part is the active linkages that we see young entrepreneurs forming among themselves to support, to procure goods and services from each other. And that was only just one of the objectives of the youth economy agency already coming to life. Through the youth economy, we are expecting a cadre of young of the objectives of the youth economy agency already coming to life. Through the youth economy, we are expecting a cadre of young, disciplined, innovative and emerging strategic alliances among themselves. We are embarking on global and regional partnerships that will expose them to the opportunities in the region and the global marketplace. Our discussions during the course of the annual meeting are more crucial than ever. Our challenges are numerous but not beyond the imagination, talent and resourcefulness of our people. I am convinced that we can continue to build a regional institution that can provide finance for climate changes, reset the debt issue, build capacity and most importantly improve the quality of life of the people of the region by providing financing in areas of education, healthcare, manufacturing, tourism, climate infrastructure, road and water infrastructure, food and energy security. We must commend the CDB for the support it has provided to Saint Lucia and the region to help navigate the difficult social and economic challenges of the COVID pandemic. While the CDB fulfills its mandate, countries must manage their economies to provide the necessary fiscal space to allow for the repayment of debt to the institutions since the shareholders expect their resources to be used in the most efficient manner. I urge the CDB to remember that there can be no economy without people and our policies must ensure economic sustainability but not forgetting the social health, nutritional and economic well-being of the people of the region for in the final analysis it is the people whom we soon. I wish you a successful AGM and employ you while in our beautiful island to let her inspire you. I thank you. I now call on the governor for Belize to give his response. I would like to acknowledge the presence of the acting Governor General Mr. Errol Charles and Mrs. Charles, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia Honourable Philip J. Pierre, Governors, Directors, the President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Government Representative, Development Partners and other distinguished guests Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Firstly, I want to thank our host country Saint Lucia for the warmth of its people and the generous hospitality, a beautiful and fitting backdrop for the conversations to come. In this being, I wish to recognize the hard work of the management and staff of the bank. Many times, their hard work and sacrifice goes unnoticed and unrecognized. The tremendous work being done across the region and the work that went into ensuring that this annual meeting is as a success is worthy of commendation. I greet you all today on behalf of the Prime Minister of Belize, the Honorable John Percenio. The government and of course the citizens of Belize. It is an honor to speak to you all today, not only on behalf of my country but also on behalf of all our borrowing member countries. As we know, we have much more commonalities binding us than differences. We are stewards of some of the best natural resources that Earth has to offer. We have rich histories that have great unique cultures. On the other hand, we are also economically vulnerable with multiple significant constraints and we are highly exposed to the risk of the global arena. In many instances, by standard, the phenomena beyond our control. More than anything though, the greatest things we share in common is our resilience. Even in the fears of a global pandemic, in the fears of the giant and crude appetite of climate change, in the fears of geopolitical tensions, in the fears of suffocating global inflation, we continue to persevere. Allow me to illustrate that resilience through the lens of Belize under the leadership of our Prime Minister, the Honorable John Percenio. The Government of Belize has accomplished many major milestones, though thought to be impossible, given persistent externalities. In the area of macro-level fiscal management, Belize achieved a 65 percentage point reduction in our debt to GDP, down from 133 percent in 2020 to 64 percent as of December of 2022. This was largely due to the historic blue-bond debt for marine conservation transaction. It allowed us to successfully renegotiate our external commercial debt and resulted in an immediate 12 percent reduction in our total government debt. In the process, Belize earmarked $4 million annually for marine conservation. In the areas of social protection, Belize have mainstream national efforts to develop a comprehensive social protection strategy and are steadily on track toward achieving multi-dimensional social protection with the unemployment rate at an all-time low of 5 percent. Belize is among the fastest growing economy in the region, giving international partners and investors restored confidence in our economic productivity. While I will share more about this notable feat and promises that Belize will continue to ascend on this course, the reality is that if another hurricane will stop tomorrow or a global pandemic rampage once more, all our progress would likely disappear. The last few hurricanes that impacted Belize contributed to an annual, to average annual losses of 4 percent of GDPs and considerably damaged to infrastructure and public utilities. Even without a direct hit, flooding in our central districts reached unprecedented levels and left us with an estimated $100 million worth of damage. Hurricane Lisa, a category one storm that hit last November, once again underscore our vulnerability, though only a category one hurricane. That to be best case scenario still require emergency response and left us with considerable damage. This story is not one that only Belize can tell. Every single borrowing member country holds a similar feat. This scenario have become the norm for our region. We know that our progress is only as secure as we are in the face of external shocks. Individually as countries we have made great strides in reducing our debt burdens, prioritizing climate action, building our disaster risk reduction facilities and serving our people. But collective actions remain crucial. This only underscore the urgency for more collaboration at a regional level. We recognize the strategic role of the Caribbean Development Bank in mobilizing resources to support borrowing member countries, efforts to address the challenges they face. The bank's targeted and strategic financial support have enabled each of our countries to prepare customized development solution paired with unparalleled technical expertise and more importantly align with our individual national development plan. Belize will continue to champions the bank as it works hard to meet its role, mandate and the expectations of its borrowing member countries. We will also continue to advocate for the bank among strategic partners and stakeholders. We acknowledge the ongoing effort of the bank to mobilize climate finance. We need the bank to advance its effort to provide affordable financing to our countries by pursuing blended finance. We wish to see the banks provide direct support to borrowing member countries to develop comprehensive climate adaptation projects. And I say adaptation, not my mistake. And advance the mobilization of climate finance for loss and damage as negotiated at COP 27. Mr Chairman, thank you once again for convening us and leading this necessary conversation. And we thank the bank for being such an essential partner to our borrowing member countries. We trust the conversations had will be born of genuine regard for the countries we represent and the people we serve. Thank you for the opportunity to address this gathering. And may we forge stronger partnerships to advance the development interests of our borrowing countries. Thank you. I now call on the governor from Venezuela to speak on behalf of regional non-borrowing members. Good morning. Acting governor-general of San Luzha, His Excellency Mr Cyril Erol-Charles, Honorary prime ministers, governors, Honorary president of the Caribbean Development Bank, Representatives of the member states, representatives of the bank and participants all to this 53rd annual meeting of the board of governors of this institution. With the certainty of the success that this meeting will generate, I wish to convey to you our fraternal greetings on behalf of the non-borrowing regional members. It is an honor for me to participate in this board of governors, chair by San Luzha host country. We congratulate the prime minister, the Honorable Philip Pierre and his team for organizing and hosting this event. We also salute the work carried by the Honorable President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. Ginny León. And we take the opportunity to thank him for visiting our country, Venezuela, in March of this year, hoping to deepen the presence and participation of Venezuela with this institution. From Venezuela we believe that the CDB's approach for 2023, which will seek to focus on access to financing, is very relevant for the current economic situation, as it is a fundamental aspect of the development process in emerging economies. An obvious reality is that the global demand for financing is enormous at all levels and in all aspects, with the amount of monetary resources has always been limited. The reorientation of access to financing is a central issue in the current financial order, since developing countries require greater support from international financial institutions with the access criteria that not only measure indicators of economic income, but do not depend on subordination to the implementation of specific economic policies. And that can also address the vulnerability of these economies to external shocks, natural disasters and variations in international markets, especially in the countries with the greatest difficulties. In response to the challenges facing the world today, we believe in the importance of the reconfiguration of the global economy toward a diversified and a multipolar one. Today's war is witnessing a breakdown in the traditional economic order and it is in this regard we highlight the role played by emerging economies mainly through their associations in cooperation blocks such as the BRICS, whose presence on the international scene is on the rise. The global monetary system is moving in a more inclusive direction with diverse payment arrangements and new international financial mechanisms that give trade real freedom for expansion is pertinent. In this sense, the BRICS town is initiative 2.0 could generate sufficient momentum and energy to enable the development of a new regional financial architecture more inclusive for developing countries, more responsive to the current economic and financial challenges with less preponderance on the conditionality and oriented toward ensuring the welfare of the people. Although we have faced strong economic and financial challenges in recent years, we can finally begin to leave behind the period of complexity that the COVID-19 pandemic entailed, whose economic aftermath we have not been yet able to overcome. Will we move forward in our efforts to resolve complex geopolitical scenarios, mitigate climate change and address the food and energy needs of developing countries? It is our duty to emphasize that the willingness to work together as a region is a responsibility and must be our guiding principle. From Venezuela's point of view, our presence in the historical path toward development in the Caribbean region is undeniable. However, the imposition of illegal coercive measures unilaterally on my country violating the principles of international law not only have negative effects on our people but the development initiatives that we have implemented in our brothers and sisters in the region that have been severely affected presenting a negative scope on the regional level. We urge to remove the sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba. However, we reaffirm our willingness to continue working together with this institution and hand in hand with its member countries for the economic development and welfare of the peoples. Let us move forward for a new international economic order that allows this balance, inclusion and compensation. Finally, Excellencies allow me to convey to the Caribbean Development Bank our best wishes for another successful year and to reiterate to all our Caribbean brothers and sisters that they can count on our friendly hand and the friendly hand of President Nicolas Maduro and the government of Venezuela to face the challenges and adversities on the road to develop a long and complex path that undoubtedly requires collective actions and a renewed leadership in their international concert. Thank you very much. To speak on behalf of non-regional members I call the Governor for Germany. Honourable Governor, Prime Minister and Excellencies President León, distinguished Governors, Ladies and Gentlemen I am honoured to deliver these remarks on behalf of Nils Anand the Governor for Germany for the group of non-regional, non-borrowing members of the CDB. Governor Anand was unable to join us today in person due to an urgent parliamentary commitment. First of all, please allow me to thank the Government and the people of Senglusha for hosting this annual meeting and the CDB team for all the hard work in organising. The Caribbean region is facing a number of challenges today which together are reducing the scope for sustainable development. Until the social consequences of the pandemic are overcome we still have a long way to go. Economically, while tourism has rebounded and inflation has been curbed it remains a key challenge compounded by rising interest rates and burdening levels of debt. So environmentally the climate crisis poses fundamental threats to the people of the Caribbean most of all to the poorest and most vulnerable. As a consequence of climate change the Caribbean is hit by natural disasters with ever increasing frequency and intensity causing significant damage and loss of life each year. Yet I am optimistic the people and societies of the region are actively looking for answers to these challenges and building resilience. In the region has a lot of potential this includes a well-educated population an increasingly diversified economy and an active civil society. Adequate and affordable finance for development as the title of this meeting suggests is one of the crucial enablers of sustainable development in the Caribbean. We also particularly welcome the focus on gender equality youth and indigenous people and the gender of the annual meeting. In these challenging times societies need to be more resilient against crisis strong international and multilateral cooperation can contribute. More investments are needed for the protection of the global climate and our natural resources. As part of ongoing reform processes in multilateral development banks the shareholders have been highlighting the need to provide and protect global public goods like climate, biodiversity and pandemic prevention and integrate them more deeply in the operations on the ground. In this regard we invite management to explore opportunities to incentivize and leverage investments in the provision and protection of regional and global public goods in the Caribbean and in particular on the immense impact of climate change. We welcome the CDB's early work on addressing the recommendations of the G20 review on capital adequacy frameworks and look forward to further engagements in the board and at the level of governors. As a regional development bank CDB is particularly well positioned to support borrowing member states in implementing their respective climate targets in terms of mitigation and adaptation. As non-regional members we also encourage CDB to continue and strengthen its efforts to implement the bank's climate targets and to fully align its operations with the Paris agenda. In this context robust disaster risk management remains an absolute necessity. CDB has also been critical in promoting resilient reconstruction in the wake of disasters which is an important preventative contribution limiting the impact of future shocks. Finally concerning CDB's risk profile we would like to stress that in the interest of protecting current lending conditions and volumes for borrowing countries the double A plus rating must be preserved and in the median term we would like to see CDB return to being a triple A rated institution. CDB is a key partner for non-regional member countries including Germany in the development cooperation with the Caribbean region and CDB and the region can count on our continued support. Thank you. The governor for Guyana to give the report I nearly forgot the president. It's my distinct pleasure to invite the president to give the report to the president. It's my distinct pleasure to invite the president of the Caribbean Bevan Bank of the hygienist Jean Leon to address us. Good morning all. Since we are in St. Lucia I think I will deviate a little from protocol and start with a little bit of quail. So Missier excellence Deputy Governor General Serial Errol Charles and Madame Anissia Charles Missier premier Minis Philippe Jepier Minis government in St. Lucia Governor bank nous Diplomartelot pays Mounavité Madame and Missier All those who follow us here under the internet here and other countries Translated into Good morning Welcome. Hello Welcome to all Welcome to the 53rd annual development bank in the Caribbean and who did less also to welcome all here in the country of Natalmois St. Lucie So good morning and welcome to the 53rd annual meeting of the Caribbean Development Bank and I'd like to welcome all of you here it is a pleasure for me to for the bank to host this meeting the Helen of the West my hometown of St. Lucia the boring member countries of the Caribbean Development Bank today are being challenged like never before the advent of a one in 100 year pandemic layered on existing economic and environmental vulnerabilities plus the war in Ukraine the world into a period of geopolitical realignment supply disruptions food and energy insecurity and volatile financial markets these shocks led to sharp declines in output eroded some of the socio-economic gains made in past years and further slowed the region's progress towards the attainment of the sustainable development goals they have also contributed to rising debt levels the erosion of fiscal space and increased inequality and poverty levels equally concerning is the global trend towards fragmentation into distinct economic blocks with different ideologies political systems technology standards cross-border payment systems and reserve currencies this potentially exposes the region to additional risks as fractures in the flow of capital goods, services and technology across borders could add to inflationary pressures eliminated jobs and deprived people of food medicine and order essentials in other words fragmentation could result in another supply side shock leading to sharper increases in prices and less output these difficult circumstances have increased the development challenges in the region to better address the challenges of BMCs CDB recognized that it must reimagine its approach to development we needed a paradigm shift at the basic level and the shift began with our understanding of development and in Creole for us to implement one of these countries who even work with us we need to change the way we look at it and accompany the concept of development and we need to change the steps we have to turn things on its head if we are to understand how we take this forward so at the bank we pivoted our understanding of development to promote a holistic systems approach where productive and institutional capacity environmental sustainability social resilience and financial affordability are seen as essential components of the evolution of the system while implementation at the point in time may be specific each part must be located within the systemic picture over time in other words we cannot leave any part behind your bank CDB was at the forefront of the regional effort to accelerate recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and supported programs for health social resilience and learning continuity the organization of Eastern Caribbean states the OECS CDB in partnership with CARICOM secretariat and OECS commission developed the Let's RIP program to provide schools in the borrowing member countries with a roadmap to address the pandemic related learning gaps and to increase inclusion the RIP program provided certification training for 2,910 educators in Caribbean schools we also strengthened special education training for 175 teachers in St. Lucia to better respond to varied student needs and to improve their quality of education in 2022 total disbursements increased by 12.2% to 285.9 million US dollars comprising 180.7 million US dollars in loans and 105 million US dollars in grants behind these approvals and disbursement figures are human lives which were positively affected as the bank worked closely with countries, communities and development partners to develop on the SDGs the bank also made strides with key projects in Suriname Guyana, Bahamas St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Belize and has expanded this partnership with member countries and development partners among these new partnerships is a soft loan 20 million US dollars with the government of Italy for a program to support sustainable development projects in the Caribbean Interventions are also underway to increase climate resilience trade and agriculture of note a 14 million euros from the European Union to implement the Caribbean action for resilience enhancement care program 9.9 million US dollars from the adaptation fund to implement the building resilience for adaptation to climate change and climate variability in agriculture in St. Lucia project long title in the past year the bank committed an estimated US 41 million dollars of its own funds towards climate change initiatives mainly in energy and infrastructure the bank has also stepped up its level of ambition and adopted a climate finance target of 25 to 30% of its own resources towards climate change adaptation and mitigation by 2024 up from 11% in 2021 we will continue to build on these achievements to open our ambition for the road ahead in particular we will continue to build to start well and also make our ambition stronger to achieve this success associated with us on the road ahead we will do what it takes to ensure that we have and can continue the ambition that we have set ourselves meanwhile we are cognizant of the fact that headwinds remain as growth in the Caribbean is expected to moderate when tourism returns to pre-pandemic levels tighter global financial conditions could make it harder to finance fiscal deficits and roll over debt additionally there are climate related disasters that may cause large economic and social losses and weaken economic activity nevertheless we will remain steadfast and single-minded in our aspiration to accelerate the pace of economic activity close the gap to achieving the SDGs and fundamentally alter the development path to place countries on a higher and more sustainable path in the future by building internal resilience capacity we can frame our thinking about building internal resilience capacity as a trilogy comprising first refining the international development paradigm second building partnerships and third strengthening policies so the first part of the trilogy is refining the international development paradigm we need to in other words measure better to target better so let us therefore agree that the use of gross national product or gross national income as a proxy for development is insufficient and therefore our usual set of policies to grow GDP will also be insufficient let us agree that in a world with a multiplicity of shocks sustainability remains a dream unless we can conquer resilience let us agree to advance the global development agenda by adopting beyond GDP measures like the UN's multi-dimensional vulnerability index as our guideposts and by extension a broad GDP vulnerability and resilience policy tool to target improving internal resilience capacity of a country and therefore and thereby its sustainable development many stakeholders are proposing specific institutional reforms to make international development assistance and climate finance architectures more suitable for the 21st century a prominent example is the Bridgetown initiative to complement the Bridgetown initiative the CDB is exploring new and innovative ways to shape how concessional financial assistance is allocated including through the multi-dimensional vulnerability index or our recovery duration adjuster framework multilateral development banks including the CDB have also been recently designated as prescribed holders of special drawing rights by the International Monetary Fund and can use these SDRs for loans, swaps pledges in exchange for currency or settling financial obligations among other purposes there are also efforts on the way to establish a more robust architecture to address vulnerable countries loss and damage needs including through the Santiago network and the new loss and damage fund that the UNFCCC parties agreed to establish at COP 27 the second part of the trilogy is partnerships accelerated sustainable development requires partnerships for development between the private sector the government and the international community in fact I have repeatedly said that sustainable development is too important for it to be the exclusive purview of governments let us agree therefore we need to share to grow sharing opportunities sharing burdens and sharing responsibilities partnerships should therefore take place at various levels partnerships among multilateral financial institutions why don't we use financial partnerships to effect scale lending along thematic lines a green just energy transition that goes beyond national and continental boundaries regional and external associates can also pursue partnerships in knowledge creation sharing technology to improve productivity global productivity and focusing on national goals that can be effectively delivered through complementarities and synergies between the private and the public sectors thereby helping to break the trust barriers that exist between public and private sectors and unifying a focus on country prosperity partnerships can also occur in capacity building for example we can reimagine our learning systems and develop centers of excellence sharing technology to bridge skills gaps across the Caribbean islands particularly new and emerging areas such as animation and gaming robotics, digital media and green engineering this can expand skill sets and create jobs and business opportunities particularly for the youth of our region and help to mitigate some of the outward migration the best and brightest young people the third part of the trilogy is policies we need policies and supporting instruments that are designed to drive fit for purpose investment activities enhance implementation capacity for building resilience and increasing access to adequate and affordable financing for investments I want to focus on the financing aspect of those policies it includes creating policies and designing instruments geared towards developing a resourcing ecosystem that provides liquidity for rescue liquidity for recovery and liquidity for repositioning based on need and not only on GDP examples of that infrastructure that I speak of include contingent disaster financing instruments for example a class of guarantees for financing the impact of natural hazards contingent debt instruments to cushion the effect of an exogenous shock instruments for mobilizing and intermediating private sector financing for development revisiting debt sustainability frameworks to incorporate a wide class of debt clauses exploring guarantees to enhance the quality of portfolios and expanding insurance instruments to facilitate resilience let us agree therefore that we need a suite of instruments and affordable financing with appropriate governance frameworks to customize our varying needs and deliver on the promise of resilient prosperity for all of our citizens CDB has a special role to play in navigating these challenging times the bank will relentlessly pursue its ambitious agenda to build internal resilience capacity in our BMCs using the trilogy of improving the international development paradigm building partnerships and strengthening policies however our efforts alone will not take us over the finish line we request your continued and unwavering support as we are determined to introduce and execute novel and innovative approaches to support our membership we will continue to demonstrate unmatched resilience and improved responsiveness as the regions development bank as we remain true to our mandate our mandate of transforming Caribbean societies and committed to safeguarding the vision of resilient prosperity the fate of the region and the bank will be extremely linked when the region succeeds the bank succeeds it is therefore in our collective interest to work together and inquiry all the bank life is good we are all doing good so we can work together to let one of us work together so let us act together and act now because the moment is with us and if we allow it not to happen we will need to reflect in history why we did not do what we are called to do thank you there is strength in numbers we can do this you have in the IDB group an entity committed to this concept of partnership with purpose for a stronger more Brazilian and integrated Caribbean our future awaits let's embrace it together a pathway to resident prosperity is made with sustainable partnership together thank you very much I suggest that the president goes to part for school I would thank the president for bringing our Creole to focus and I want to invite you if you want to learn Creole you can do it for a small fee it's my distinct pressure to invite the chairperson of the governor of Ghana to give us a recall a recount of what happened at the procedures committee meeting morning chairman governors the procedures committee met on Monday June 19, 2023 at 4pm at the report of this committee dated June 20, 2020 is before you I have the honor to table the report on behalf of the committee and move that the board of governors adopt the recommendations contained therein Mr Chairman the procedures committee met at 4pm on Monday June 19, 2023 representatives of Antigon Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados Belize, Canada, China Colombia, Germany Grenada, Guyana Haiti, Italy, Jamaica St. Kitt's and Nevis St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom the committee submits the following report one schedule of the annual meeting the committee recommends that the schedule of the meeting are set out in paper BG53-1 be approved two provisions relating to the conduct of the meeting and the procedures committee the committee recommends that the provisions relating to the conduct of the meeting of the procedures committee in paper BG53-2 be approved agenda the committee recommends the adoption of the agenda as circulated in paper BG53-3 regarding the items on the agenda the committee reports on the following recommendations A. Annual report for 2022 the submission to the governors of the annual report for 2022 was noted governors who wish to do so may comment on the annual report in their statements B. Audited financial statements and reports of the independent auditors 2022 the committee considered the report of the board of directors paper BG53-4 and the audited financial statements and reports of the independent auditors contained in the annual report and resolved as follows the audited financial statement be in respect of its ordinary capital resources special development fund and other special funds are approved C. Allocation of the net income of the year ended December 31st 2022 the committee considered the report of the board of directors paper BG53-5 entitled allocation of net income and resolved as follows the net income of $21,188,000 being the operating income arising from the ordinary operations of the bank are as reported in the statement of comprehensive income for the year ended December 31st 2022 be allocated to the retained earnings and reserves of the bank two the net income from the year ended December 31st 2022 from its special operations relating to the general funds of $1,723,000 the contribution from the international development agency of $72,000 the contribution from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela of $3,000 and the contribution from the agency France is the development of $60,000 respectively be allocated to the reserves of those resources to be used in any manner not inconsistent with the purpose and functions of the bank any rules or regulations governing each such special funds and any agreement relating there to the administrative budget for the year ending December 31st 2023 the committee considered the report of the board of directors paper BG53-6 entitled administrative budget for the year ending December 31st 2023 and recommends that the governors note the budget e. expenses of the governors and alternates attending the meetings of the board of governors or committees thereof the committee considered the report of the board of directors paper BG53-7 and recommends that the draft resolution entitled expenses of governors and alternates attending meetings of the board of governors or committees thereof be adopted place and date of the 54th 2024 annual meeting the committee considered the report of the board of directors paper BG53-8 and recommends that the draft resolution entitled place and date of 54th 2024 annual meeting be adopted elections of officers of the 54th annual meeting the committee resolved that the governor for Canada be elected as a chairman and the governors for St. Kitts and Nevis Columbia and Columbia be elected as vice chairman any other business the chairman will make reports to the board of governors there being no other business the procedures committee meeting ended at 4.45 pm signed governor St. Lucia chairman Dr. Tarjan biografin governor the corporate republic of Rayano thank you thank you very much I would like to bring this opening ceremony to an end and could you stand for the departure of the Excellency the governor general and after could our governors remain for family photo photo this meeting this opening ceremony is coming to an end thank you very much there are some refreshments on the outside remember to have a meeting this afternoon 1.40 pm lunch