Saturday, September 27, 2008
PRIME Minister Bruce Golding yesterday called for Jamaica and other Caricom states to be recognised as "small vulnerable and highly Indebted middle-income countries", instead of their current international ranking as "middle income developing countries".
Golding told the United Nations that Jamaica and its Caricom (Caribbean Community) partners were proposing the new designation as a special category of international recognition because of the difficulties created by their peculiar needs, as well as their exposure to natural disasters.
"We call on the international community to devise strategic programmes to address the peculiar needs of middle-income countries with deep pockets of poverty," Golding said.
The prime minister was addressing the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
He said that the focus of development co-operation cannot be too narrowly defined.
Said Golding: "The varied economic and social profiles of developing countries require a more flexible response that recognises investment in human capital, infrastructure and the transfer of technology as critical elements in reducing poverty in a sustained way.
"This is particularly important to developing countries that are classified, based on per capita income, as middle-income countries," the prime minister said.
"This classification deprives them of access to concessionary financing and creative measures to reduce the crippling debt burden that afflicts so many of them. If we are to reduce poverty, the peculiar circumstances of these countries cannot be ignored, since that is where more than one-third of the world's poor are to be found," he added.
Turning to the UN's millennium development goals (MDGs), Golding said that although the process was halfway to the 2015 deadline, it was behind schedule.
"It is time to take stock to see where we are falling behind, who is falling behind and what must be done to make up lost ground," the Jamaican prime minister told the UN.
A critical success factor, he suggested, must be the partnership between developed and developing countries, as defined in the 2002 Monterey Consensus on Financing for Development, integrating aid, debt relief, market access, good governance and foreign direct investment.
"These initiatives were carefully calibrated. Proceeding with some elements without the others will not achieve the goals we have set. Indeed, it might make it worse," he said.
The prime minister said that developing countries must all pull up their socks, if they are to reverse the slippage they have suffered.
"Developing countries must ensure that their priorities are properly structured. Developed countries must live up to their commitment to devote 0.7 per cent of their GDP to official development assistance. This is a modest amount yet, only five countries have to date done so," the prime minister pointed out.
On the issue of global economic governance, Golding said that in 60 years very little change has been made to its governance structure and practices, and he called for a re-engineering of the global financial system.
He said that Jamaica supported the call for reform of the existing financial infrastructure, to reflect the new global realities and make it more proactive and responsive to the needs of the entire world community.
"But, it must involve more than merely expanding the membership of an exclusive club. It must be development-driven, recognising that poverty anywhere, is a threat to prosperity elsewhere," he said.
The crisis currently rocking the world's financial markets reflects the inadequacy of the regulatory structures that are essential to the effective functioning of any market, Golding said. But he said it also represented the failure on the part of the international financial system to facilitate the flow of resources into areas where they can produce real wealth.
"The world is not short of capital. What it lacks are the mechanisms to ensure the efficient utilisation o
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