BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC—The Barbados-based Caribbean Growth Financial institution (CDB) introduced Tuesday that Dr. Nigel Clarke, the deputy managing director of the Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF), will ship the 2025 version of the William G. Demas Memorial Lecture.
It stated that Clare, a former Jamaica finance minister, will ship the lecture in opposition to financial challenges within the Caribbean and the present state of geopolitical fragmentation.
Dr. Nigel Clarke
“It’s necessary for policymakers to find out how greatest to unlock the area’s potential, increase productiveness, and foster resilience,” the CDB stated, including that the lecture shall be delivered beneath the theme “The Caribbean Problem: Fostering Development and Resilience Amidst World Uncertainty.”
Will probably be held on June 10, in the course of the CDB’s fifty fifth annual assembly in Brasília, Brazil.
“We acknowledge the important position of progressive pondering in tackling the Caribbean’s main challenges,” stated CDB president Daniel Finest.
“Dr. Clarke’s in depth expertise and deep perception into our financial panorama make him uniquely positioned to supply transformative insights on fostering development and resilience on this time of world uncertainty. This lecture serves as each an inspiration and a name to motion for leaders throughout the area to construct a stronger Caribbean collaboratively,” he added.
Earlier than assuming the senior place on the Washington-based monetary establishment, Dr. Clarke served as Jamaica’s minister of finance and public service from March 2018, serving earlier than because the nation’s Ambassador of Financial Affairs from 2016–2018.
“Underneath his stewardship, Jamaica applied a multi-layered catastrophe danger financing mannequin and have become the primary small nation to sponsor a disaster bond, with World Financial institution help independently. In 2023, Jamaica accomplished its first-ever worldwide concern of an area currency-denominated bond. In 2024, the nation efficiently executed its first-ever securitization transaction in worldwide capital markets,” the CDB stated.
The William G. Demas Memorial Lecture is a flagship occasion on the CDB’s Board of Governors, which meets from June 9 to 12 this 12 months.
The lecture collection honors “the thought management of CDB’s second President by bringing into focus the problems and initiatives of significance to the financial improvement of the Financial institution’s member nations,” the CDB stated.
