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8 9 OPENING LINES CARIBBEAN DEVELOPMENT ROUNDTABLE BRINGS TOGETHER MINISTERS TO DISCUSS ECONOMIC GROWTH AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE C limate resilience through green invest- ment, the impact of de-risking, and the promotion of sustainable economic growth were the center of focus at the fifth Caribbean Development Roundtable. Deci- sion makers, senior policy makers, and ministers addressed these pivotal topics over the course of a fruitful day of discussions, which took place recently, in Gros Islet, Saint Lucia. Convened by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean subregional headquarters for the Caribbean, and hosted by the government of Saint Lucia, the CDR was offi- cially opened by Raúl García-Buchaca, the Deputy Executive Secretary of ECLAC for management and program analysis, and Allen Chastanet, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Minister for Finance, Eco- nomic Growth, Job Creation, External Affairs and the Public Service. In his opening statement, Chastanet under- scored the timeliness of the meeting and the im- portance of the issues to be discussed by empha- sizing that “The Caribbean has ten of the most indebted middle-income countries in the world.” Echoing the sentiments expressed by Chasta- net, García-Buchaca highlighted that the Carib- bean debt burden is one of the major challenges currently facing the subregion. “The debt in many of the [Caribbean] countries is today above sus- tainable benchmarks,” he stated. In this regard, García-Buchaca went on to out- line the main differences between past remedial efforts –which have not achieved the desired results – and the ECLAC approach to debt reduc- tion, most notably vis-à-vis the incorporation of a resilience building component, as well as the re- quirement for member states that elect to partici- pate in such a debt for climate swap arrangement to pursue structural reforms. Furthermore, García-Buchaca explained that