Guyana's finance minister calls for Caribbean debt relief

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (GINA) -- The second meeting of the Caribbean Development Roundtable (CDR) hosted by the government of Guyana took place on Wednesday under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), centered 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.?

She also invited the Caribbean to give a mandate to ECLAC to indicate the areas in which help is needed to work on the region?s economic growth reform. Pointing out that structural change is the pathway towards economic growth, Barcena said ECLAC is focusing on ?investment, integration and innovation?.

Focusing on regional integration, the ECLAC executive pointed to the vulnerability of Caribbean states to national disasters and climate change, macroeconomic policies and re-emphasised the need for structural change.

Minister of Finance of Trinidad and Tobago Winston Dookeran stressed the fact that there is no easy answer on how to handle the situation. He said that the structural change of the regional economy would depend of the Caribbean states? resilience to cope and their capacity to create and sustain buffers, both internal and international, to support their economies.

Dookeran noted also that it would be a case of the ?logic of politics vs the logic of economics? as the region works towards reassessing the direction which they must now pursue.

Singh stated that while small states have not contributed to the collapse of the world economy, they still face the threats and effects of it.

?What do we want ECLAC to do?? Singh asked, and added that while the UN system has an extremely important role to play, ECLAC has an even more important one, ?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.?

He focused on the debts of Caribbean countries towards the international community and the merits and the peculiar challenges of debt relief. Singh urged the international community to get involved in the issue of buffering the Caribbean.

The finance minister also urged closer regional integration with a view to embracing hemispheric opportunities.

Discussions at Wednesday?s forum also focused on the fiscal crisis among several Caribbean countries, with Dookeran moderating discussion about approaches to create better fiscal outcomes that will lead to economic transformation. This forum focused on the many challenges faced by small states, including limited fiscal space and lower growth. The panelists 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.

A special delegation from Brazil was in attendance at the Roundtable as the result of a meeting earlier this year with Brazilian officials, where ECLAC sought to build stronger relationships with Caribbean and Latin American countries.

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