BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is taking a creative initiative to help strengthen economic links between Latin America and the Caribbean and promote “economic empowerment” for their people.

As the premier multilateral development institution of the Caribbean Community, the bank’s efforts will be highlighted at its 37th annual Board of Governors Meeting that begins today in Caracas, Venezuela.

More than 200 delegates – among them heads of government, ministers of finance and planning, representatives of donor countries and international financial institutions – are expected to attend the four-day meeting, at which President Hugo Chavez will be among the lead speakers.

Major features of the meeting, apart from the deliberations of the Board of Governors, will be a high-level seminar on “Economic Relations between Caricom and Latin America”, and a “Roundtable on Building Economic Empowerment” in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The seminar, which will be chaired by the CDB’s president, Dr Compton Bourne, is to be addressed by three recognised experts – Professor Norman Girvan, former secretary-general of the Association of Caribbean States; Professor Victor Bulmer-Thomas, former director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs; and Dr Pablo Rodas Martini, chief economist of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration.

The roundtable on economic empowerment is to be hosted by the Inter-American Council at the invitation of the CDB. The intention is for the ideas and suggestions emanating from both the seminar and roundtable to assist in the promotion of closer economic relations and building economic empowerment between the two regions.

Before leaving Friday for Caracas, Dr Bourne told the Observer that one of the new initiatives to be introduced for consideration and action is the bank’s involvement in urban development, which is emerging as a major problem within Caricom.

Last year, the Barbados-based CDB provided loans and grants to its member borrowing countries totalling some US$132 million, about 60 per cent of which was allocated to the so-called Lesser Developed Countries.