Haiti Takes Place on CDB Board of Governors Haiti was warmly received among the membership of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) at the Bank's Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting. The Haitian delegation was led by Mr. Daniel Dorsainvil, Minister of the Economy and Finance, CDB Governor for the Republic of Haiti. The Annual Meeting was held at the Radisson Plaza Eurobuilding Hotel in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 30 and 31, 2007. Haiti, which previously enjoyed observer status at the Annual Meeting, became a full member of CDB in January of this year. During the Opening Ceremony, Chairman Mr. Rafael Isea, CDB Governor for Venezuela, gave the Welcome Address. Replies to the Welcome Address were given by the Governors for Antigua and Barbuda, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Dr. Rodrigo Cabezas, representative of the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, also addressed the audience at the Opening Ceremony. CDB President, Dr. Compton Bourne, in his Annual Statement to the Governors, addressed the theme Urban Development: Challenges and Approaches . He said that the urban population of Caribbean Community countries had expanded enormously over the last 30 years, and a contemporary development has been the growth of squatter settlements or informal housing settlements as they are sometimes called. He also made reference to another phenomenon affecting Caribbean countries: For those Caribbean countries whose sustained economic progress or comparable social and political stability attract migrants from neighbouring countries, there is another dimension. In many cases, unskilled or lower skilled immigrants have clustered in deprived urban areas or in informal settlements, thereby compounding the problems of urban congestion and deprivation. Dr. Bourne urged the governments of these countries to develop full fledged plans and programmes for urban development and regeneration. Governors participated in a Round Table Discussion hosted by the Inter-American Economic Council on "Building Economic Empowerment in Latin America and the Caribbean" and an agriculture donor conference on "Transforming CARICOM Agriculture - Ensuring Food Security and Rural Development in CARICOM" organised by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the CARICOM Secretariat. The Governor for Canada was elected Chairman of the Board of Governors to serve up to the end of the next Annual Meeting, which is to be held in Halifax, Canada, in 2008.