CDB Annual Meeting Returns to Guyana After 27 YearsWhen the Government of the Republic of Guyana hosts the Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) next month, it will be the first time since 1978 that a CDB Annual Meeting will be held in Guyana. The Meeting is scheduled for May 18 and 19, at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel in Georgetown.CDB's Annual Meeting is held in a different member country each year; Guyana last hosted the Eighth Annual Meeting in 1978. President Bharrat Jagdeo, who is CDB Governor for Guyana, was elected Chairman of the Board of Governors at the 34th Annual Meeting in Tobago last year, and will serve up to the end of the meeting in Georgetown.Delegates, Observers and Guests will be engaged in a week of activities in Georgetown since the Governors' Meeting will be preceded by a meeting of the Bank's Board of Directors on May 16, the Annual Meeting of Contributors to CDB's Special Development Fund and the William G. Demas Memorial Lecture on May 17.President of the European Investment Bank, Philippe Maystadt, will address the closing ceremony of the Governors' Meeting on May 19. Mr. Maystadt is a former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Foreign Trade of Belgium. As a founding member of CDB, Guyana was a signatory to the agreement establishing the Bank which was signed in October 1969. From the start of operations one year later up to the present, CDB has approved a cumulative total of US$180.9 million in loans for Guyana, which is a Borrowing Member Country of the Bank. US$134.4 million of that amount has been disbursed. Projects financed include schools, community centres, roads and sea defence. Guyana is also a major beneficiary of CDB's flagship poverty reduction programme, the Basic Needs Trust Fund.CDB is a regional development financing institution which was established to accelerate the economic development of its member countries in the Caribbean and to intensify economic cooperation and integration among them. The Bank has 25 member countries in the Caribbean, Asia, Europe and North America.