Above: Paramaribo (Photo: IDB)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Caribbean governors of the Inter-American Development Bank met in Suriname Monday to discuss development challenges and opportunities in the region.

It was the first annual meeting of the Governors of the IDB’s Caribbean Country Department.

IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno said the bank would strive to remain a premier development partner for the region, even in a complex global economic climate.

“The possibility of a new global crisis concerns of all of us,” he said. “Although we are optimistic that the agreements reached in the Eurozone will contribute to containing fiscal imbalances and supporting the euro, we are also aware that additional measures and efforts must be taken.”

The event was hosted by the Central Bank of Suriname, and comes ahead of the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the IDB in Montevideo, Uruguay in March.

“We must together find ways to define new economic activiites, which will allow our countries to finally get on a sustainable development path,” said Central Bank of Suriname Governor Gillmore Hoefdraad. “This is the time to combine scarce human, financial and natural resources to one common goal: bringing prosperity to our nations.”

Hoefdraad was joined by a number of Caribbean delegations, including officials from Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and the Bahamas.