Honourable Prime Minister(s), Ministers, Excellencies, distinguished partners, colleagues, and friends. Good afternoon. 

As we bring this 56th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors to a close, we do so knowing that our work does not end here. If anything, it begins anew, carrying forward the ideas we shared, the partnerships we strengthened, and the commitments we made to build a stronger future for the Caribbean together. 

I extend my deepest gratitude to the Government and people of The Bahamas for once again embracing us at a defining moment in our Region’s history. As I stated in my opening remarks yesterday, Nassau reminds us of how far we have come and how each generation has risen to meet new challenges with the same enduring spirit that carries us forward. 

So, to every Governor, development partner, young voice, and private sector leader that filled these rooms: thank you. You showed up and engaged, challenged us, and committed yourselves to working in partnership with the Bank to transform lives for Caribbean people. 

And we have heard the call from the Governors for a more unified approach and for us to move swiftly to implement the reform agenda and operationalise the strategic plan with urgency to deliver tangible results for our people. We are committed to doing just that—by aligning our efforts across countries and partners, accelerating decision-making, and deploying practical solutions that translate policy into progress. Our focus is to move to implementation, from plans to performance, and to ensure that every action we take delivers meaningful and lasting change for the Caribbean. 

What This Week Revealed

Friends, we arrived this week carrying the weight of a world in flux: intensifying climate shocks, deepening geopolitical tensions, constrained fiscal space, slowing global growth, and another hurricane season already upon us. 

Those realities have not changed. 

But we continue to approach these challenges with collective purpose. 

Throughout this meeting, we listened to one another. We exchanged ideas. And together, we confronted some of the defining questions of our time. 

How do small states remain competitive in a rapidly changing global economy?

How do we build resilience while carrying some of the highest vulnerability burdens in the world? 

How do we create opportunities for our young people in a Region where talent is abundant, but opportunity is too often unevenly distributed? 

And how do we ensure that the institutions we depend upon are fit for the challenges ahead? 

While the discussions were wide-ranging, I believe a common message emerged. 

The future of the Caribbean will not be determined by the challenges we face. 

It will be determined by the choices we make in response to them. 

As Prime Minister Davis reminded us, our goal cannot simply be to survive. 

Our mission is to thrive. 

That conviction is reflected in the Caribbean Development Bank's Strategic Plan for 2026–2035 and was evident throughout this Annual Meeting. 

At its heart lies a simple proposition: resilience is not an end in itself. 

Resilience is the foundation upon which prosperity is built.

It is why the Bank has committed itself to advancing economic resilience, social resilience, and environmental resilience, while placing youth, climate, and institutions at the centre of our development agenda. 

And this week demonstrated why. 

In the Impact Room, we were reminded that sustainable development cannot be financed by public resources alone. The conversations reinforced the importance of mobilising private capital, strengthening entrepreneurship, and creating the conditions for investment-led growth that expands opportunity across our Region. 

Through EDGE X by CDB, we reaffirmed that in an era of uncertainty, data, evidence, and knowledge are strategic assets. Better decisions require better information, and stronger policies require a deeper understanding of the risks and opportunities shaping our future. We were challenged to translate this into action by investing in enhanced data systems, sharing knowledge across borders and using home grown evidence not only to inform our decisions but to accelerate results where they matter most. 

Our discussions on climate finance reinforced a reality the Caribbean knows all too well: while we contribute little to global emissions, we remain among the most exposed to climate impacts. Yet the conversation was not one of vulnerability alone. It was one of urgency and how we expand access to climate finance, strengthen adaptation, and reform elements of the international financial system that continue to underestimate the realities facing Small Island Developing States. 

The Youth FIRE Forum reminded us that the future is already in the room. Young people from across the Region challenged us to think differently, act more boldly, and create systems that match their ambition.  The Caribbean's greatest asset is found in the creativity, talent, and potential of our people. We are committed to going further, to working with young people and building an innovation ecosystem that develops core skills and links young people directly to real economic opportunities. We will work alongside young leaders, including the Bank’s Future Leaders Network, to turn that vision into action. 

We examined how the Caribbean - and this Bank, your Bank - is moving beyond diagnosing vulnerability to deploying financing at scale that reduces debt burdens, attracts private capital, and frees fiscal space for resilience and growth. Working alongside partners, we are reshaping our approach through instruments such as debt-for-resilience swaps, guarantees, and blended finance - tools that must become standard, not exceptional. Traditional financing alone cannot meet the needs of our Borrowing Member Countries, and we are resolute in innovating to deliver a more resilient and prosperous Caribbean. 

And the President's Chat with CABEI and the OPEC Fund underscored another important lesson. In an increasingly fragmented world, partnership remains one of the most powerful tools available to small states. No country can navigate today's challenges alone. Regional cooperation, strategic alliances, and strong development institutions remain essential to building resilience and expanding opportunities. 

Throughout our conversations at this Annual Meeting, it is clear that we are determined to build a Caribbean that is increasingly focused on solutions. 

A Caribbean that is prepared to innovate. 

A Caribbean that is prepared to collaborate. 

A Caribbean that is prepared to invest in its people, strengthen its institutions, and shape its own future. 

And perhaps most importantly, they revealed a Region that is no longer content simply to manage vulnerability or survive but is determined to build prosperity. 

What We Must Carry Forward

But friends, there is a temptation at moments like these, after days of thoughtful dialogue, renewed partnerships, and bold ideas, to leave feeling satisfied. 

I urge us to resist it. Because satisfaction is the enemy of urgency. 

And urgency is what this moment demands. 

The conversations we had this week were important. The ideas were compelling. The commitments were meaningful. 

But none of them will matter if they remain confined to these meeting rooms. The true measure of this Annual Meeting will not be what we said in Nassau. 

It will be what is done after Nassau. 

The reality is that the pressures facing our Region are not waiting for us. And our young people are certainly not waiting; they are prepared to act. 

They are looking to us not for promises, but for progress and delivery. 

What this moment requires from all of us is implementation with purpose and partnership with intent. 

It requires governments and multilateral institutions willing to pursue difficult reforms and long-term investments. 

It requires development institutions willing to move faster, innovate more boldly, and deliver greater impact. 

It requires the private sector to see opportunity where others see risk. 

And it requires regional institutions to continue doing what the Caribbean has always done at its best: act together in pursuit of a common future. 

This is especially important because the challenges before us are increasingly interconnected. 

Economic resilience cannot be separated from climate resilience. 

Climate resilience cannot be separated from institutional strength. 

Institutional strength cannot be separated from human development. 

And human development ultimately depends on whether people can see opportunity, security, and hope in their everyday lives. 

So, we deliberately centred our discussions this week on these priorities. 

Because it should matter to all of us, whether future generations look back on this moment and say that we chose action over complacency, partnership over fragmentation, and progress over inertia. 

It matters whether they inherit a Caribbean that is more prosperous, more inclusive, more resilient, and more secure than the one entrusted to us. 

That is the responsibility we must carry forward from Nassau. 

And that is the work that now begins. 

A Call to Action

The Bank cannot do it alone: development is a shared commitment. 

To our member governments: we ask for your continued partnership in implementation. Bring your priorities. Bring your ambition. Hold us accountable.

To our IFI partners: the multi-guarantor debt-for-resilience swap, the regional GCF platform, these are the architecture of a new kind of cooperation. Let us build on them as the pressures of a changing world intensify. 

To the private sector: this week showed us what is possible when capital and purpose align. There is no resilient Caribbean without a vibrant, invested private sector. We need your risk appetite to match your opportunity appetite in this Region. 

To our civil society, academic, and community partners: keep demanding more of us. The voices least heard in development corridors are often those who understand ground-level reality most clearly. This Bank is listening.

And, finally, to our young people: you are already shaping this Region. The only question is whether the systems around you keep pace with your ideas. I implore you to hold us accountable until they do. 

Closing 

As we leave Nassau, let us carry with us not just the warmth of Bahamian hospitality, but its spirit: forward-looking, rooted in identity, and open to the world. 

The Bahamas has faced the sea for centuries. It knows what it means to stand at the edge of something vast and uncertain and to build anyway. To plant anyway. To believe anyway. 

We are forging a future built with our hands, our minds, our partnerships, and our will. 

Let us create a path where we will be remembered not as the generation that managed uncertainty, but as the generation that forged possibility - together. 

It is time for us to accelerate results and impact to transform our Caribbean. This is the decade of decision and action.

Our founders did it for us against all odds. And now we must do it for generations to come.

Region, Safe travels, and we look forward to welcoming you next year. 

Thank you.