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28 29 She further noted that it will lay the foundation for enhancedwillingness and capacity to lend to the MSME sector in the long termandwithout the need for partial credit guarantees.This will strengthen MSMEs in Jamaica by facilitating relationship-building between financial institutions and the sector, as well as by promoting the development of the skill set to assess creditworthiness. Katzman also took the opportunity to congrat- ulate the government on the tremendous strides made towards macroeconomic stability in recent years, stating,“We (IDB) are in awe”of Jamaica. She also highlighted Jamaica’s improved bond rate which has reduced significantly to four percent. Audley Shaw,Minister of Finance and Public Service, reiterated the government’s commitment to increasing its share of private sector credit to 11 percent by 2020, as outlined in the recently launched National Financial Inclusion Strategy.Not- ing that “the IDB continues to give strong support to Jamaica,”Shaw thanked the IDB for its invaluable contribution aimed at paving the way for more sustained and inclusive economic growth.“I am particularly proud of the relationship Jamaica has developed with the IDB,”he added. Milverton Reynolds,Managing Director of the DBJ added that in addition to the loan to scale up the CEF, the IDB will provide US$250,000 in technical co- operation to the DBJ to improve and streamline its CEF operations,in particular,by improving the information management systemand transaction flowof the CEF’s processing and reporting functions. OPENING LINES