For the first time since his appointment last month as President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Dr Hyginus ‘Gene’Leon will address the region during a media briefing on Thursday. Leon, who beat out a number of highly qualified candidates from the region including Avinash Persaud, special advisor to Prime Minister Mia Mottley, succeeded Dr Warren Smith, who led the bank for the past ten years.
Leon heads the 200-strong team at the Wildey, St Michael-headquartered regional institution. He has 35 years of experience in economics, financial policy development and executive management, more than 20 of which were spent working with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
During his press conference which will be streamed live throughout the institution’s 19 borrowing member countries (BMCs), he is expected to address some of the pressing issues facing the region, uppermost being the COVID-19 pandemic and the devastating impact it has had on Caribbean economies.
At the start of his tenure, Leon was also faced with requests for urgent assistance to St Vincent and the Grenadines which was impacted by the La Soufriere Volcano eruptions. The eruptions destroyed a significant portion of the island’s export crops, as well as homes and businesses in the Northeast and Northwest of the island.
As a result of the disruptions to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDB responded by joining forces with the Caribbean Export Development Agency, to provide the sector with grant assistance. The CDB put $1.2 million at the disposal of MSMEs for technical assistance, paying particular attention to the cultural industries and those enterprises with export potential.
Leon, who worked as an economist at the Central Bank of Barbados holds a PhD in Economic said at his appointment, “A solid foundation for the evolution of a financially strong bank that responds to the development needs and priorities of its BMCs has been laid by successive leaders.
“Going forward, we will need to emphasise innovation, to generate and refine new ideas and create opportunities; enhance measurement and evaluation for more effective implementation; foster effective partnerships and knowledge-sharing to promote transformation; build on our collective ingenuity and experience and improve quality of life for our citizens.” (IMC1)
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