Caribbean360: Finance minister calls for Caribbean debt relief

Finance minister calls for Caribbean debt relief
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Chris Hoyos on 04/06/2012 09:44:00
 
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Monday June 4, 2012 – Guyana’s minister of finance has
called on the international community to take a special interest in offering
debt relief to the Caribbean.
Dr Ashni Singh made this call as he addressed the second meeting of the
Caribbean Development Roundtable (CDR) hosted by the government of Guyana under
the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission of Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC).
Dr Singh charged that ECLAC had an important role to play “in helping us to
move from the emotional aspect about our vulnerability and our peculiar
challenges, to a more credible case being made to the international community
about the circumstances of the small states of the Caribbean.”
The finance minister also encouraged closer regional integration with a view to
embracing hemispheric opportunities.
The forum centred on discussions about policies and strategies intended to
encourage modern thinking in the search for solutions to current development
challenges within the Caribbean and Latin America.
Under the theme “Macroeconomic policy for structural transformation and social
protection in Small States”, participants examined how development in small
states may be pursued in the post-crisis global economy through greater economic
diversification, improved access to finance and strengthened social protection,
despite fiscal constraints.
Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Alicia Barcena, commended Guyana’s President
Donald Ramotar’s vision, “which is very much in line with the mandate of
ECLAC, and that mandate is basically how to reduce inequality -- how to address
poverty, gender equality and advancing sustainable development.”
Discussions at the forum also focused on the fiscal crisis among several
Caribbean countries. This forum focused on the many challenges faced by small
states, including limited fiscal space and lower growth. The panellists sought
to identify new approaches to limit the impact of internal and external shocks
on the economies.
Focus was given to creating a macroeconomic policy to reduce the impact of
external shocks on Caribbean economies; Macro-economics for development; and
diversifying productive structures and improving access to finance in the
Caribbean sub-region.
The challenges in financing new service activities in small states were also
explored in the context of the decline in access to international finance.
Attention was given to identifying alternate sources of finance including
funding from Diaspora communities, and developing and financing new activities
in the Caribbean.
One discussion moderated by Singh focused on the challenges to maintain social
safety nets in an era of reduced government resources and limited fiscal space
in the Caribbean. It also examined ways of improving labour productivity while
creating the conditions for labour protection and security in the Caribbean. In
addition, this agenda item also considered the importance of child-sensitive
protection policies in the Caribbean sub-region. Click here to receive free news
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