TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: April 6, 2016: The Minister of Planning and Development, the Honourable Camille Robinson-Regis, Trinidad and Tobago’s Governor on the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), will be attending the Fifty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the IDB and the thirty-first Annual Meeting of the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) in Nassau, The Bahamas from April 7-10, 2016.
At this year’s meeting, Minister Robinson-Regis, on the behalf of the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, will sign a Loan Contract with the IDB, “Strengthening of the Single Electronic Window (SEW) for Trade and Business Facilitation”. The SEW loan engenders national benefit through the upgrading of the Customs System which is a major source of fiscal revenue. The loan also enables the implementation of an electronic payment system for users and tax payers. The overall objective of this project is to improve the trade performance and business facilitation environment in Trinidad and Tobago through the strengthening of the Single Electronic Window (SEW).
The project’s specific objectives are to:
i. Optimize and simplify foreign trade and business processes to reduce time and costs;
ii. Improve domestic transactions among national government institutions and external interactions with trading partners; and
iii. Update and regulate the institutional framework of the SEW.
The annual meeting of the Boards of Governors of the IDB and the IIC is usually held in late March or early April of each year in one of the Bank’s member countries. This official gathering is a forum for discussion among the Bank’s Governors, most of whom are Ministers of Finance, Presidents of Central Banks, or other high level authorities of the member countries. Representatives of multilateral financial institutions, development agencies, and private banks also attend this annual meeting. Trinidad and Tobago is usually represented at the annual meeting of the Bank by the country’s Governor on the Board of Governors of the IDB, who is supported by a team of professionals from the Ministry of Planning and Development, Finance, the Tobago House of assembly and the Central bank of Trinidad and Tobago.
As is customary, this meeting provides the opportunity for the Minister of Planning and Development, to hold bilateral discussions with the President of the Bank, Mr. Luis Alberto Moreno and senior IDB officials on issues pertinent to Trinidad and Tobago, as well as general corporate governance issues with implications for Trinidad and Tobago.
During the Meeting, seminars and workshops on issues pertinent to the Latin American and Caribbean Region are to be conducted by panels of international experts, thereby providing the opportunity for high level discussions among the Region’s Officials.
