March 1, 2012 No. 10/12-G CDB TO HOST SPECIAL DEVELOPMENT FUND (UNIFIED) NEGOTIATION MEETING IN DOMINICA The First Formal Negotiation Meeting of Contributors to the Special Development Fund (Unified) (SDF U) of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will be held in the Commonwealth of Dominica during the period March 6-9, 2012. Now in its seventh cycle, the SDF is CDB's largest source of concessionary finance for providing soft loans and grants to its Borrowing Member Countries. Replenishment of the SDF takes place every four years. The current cycle will end on December 31, 2012, and the resources which were made available for SDF 7 are expected to be fully committed by that date. A Preparatory Meeting of Contributors was held on December 9, 2011, to agree on the Themes, Issues and Timeline for the SDF 8 replenishment discussions. Other negotiation meetings are scheduled for May, July, October and possibly December 2012. The Dominica meeting will include site visits to projects funded by the SDF to give Contributors to the Fund an opportunity to see how the SDF resources were utilised. These projects include water supply in North End Marigot, the Portsmouth Pre-School the Pointe Michel Sea Wall Rehabilitation and the Carib Territory Community Development Project. The Two Hundred and Fiftieth Meeting of the CDB Board of Directors will also be held in Dominica next week. That meeting on March 7 will be preceded by a meeting of the Audit and Post-Evaluation Committee of the Board of Directors on March 5. All meetings will be held at the Fort Young Hotel, Roseau.