Guyana urges stronger partnerships – at UK-Caribbean Forum

Minister-Carolyn-Rodrigues-BirkettGeorgetown: The Foreign Ministers of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom (UK) participated in the Eighth UK-Caribbean Forum on June 16 and 17, in London. The biennial Forum is aimed at strengthening further the special relationship between the UK and the Caribbean.

It also provided a platform for the Ministers to discuss key foreign policy issues and seek agreement on a joint action plan to help promote prosperity in priority sectors in the Region and bolster the partnership on security issues. The two-day forum also focused on Energy, Education and Trade and Investment.

Delivering the opening remarks, Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, pointed out that elaborating on the post-2015 development agenda was a key point for the Caribbean Community. She observed that there was a need “to draw the lessons from the reasons for the disappointing overall performance with regard to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) and to place greater emphasis on the financing dimension. We also look forward to an exchange of views on the common challenge of climate change, increasingly a matter of survival for small island developing states. We remain optimistic that a legally binding agreement will be finalised in 2015.”

Minister Rodrigues-Birkett observed that the fact that the eighth forum was held was testimony to the long-standing relations between the Caribbean and the United Kingdom. She noted that it underlines a collective desire to enhance the relationship and deepen levels of co-operation, and urged the gathering to grasp the opportunity with both hands.

Observing that they are meeting at a time of complex global political and economic environment, where profound systemic changes are taking place, she said, “This evolving political and economic environment is at the same time particularly unfavourable to the small developing economies of the Caribbean. The developed countries like yours can speak of a post-crisis economic recovery though it remains weak.”

Guyana’s Foreign Minister explained that Caribbean countries are still in global economic crisis mode with little reason to be optimistic in the immediate and short- term. She added that external resource flows, private and official, on which the economies rely to stimulate growth, continue to dwindle. “This trend is exacerbated by our classification as Middle Income Countries and the resulting imposition of "differentiation" and "graduation" which impedes access to concessionary funding,” she stated.

The Minister added that this was an inequitable classification, “based on one metric, GDP per capita, a flawed assumption that cannot be a sound measure of development. It utterly ignores the susceptibility to external economic shocks, the debt situation and several other vulnerabilities and peculiarities of our small economies.”

An alternative metric must be considered that takes into account resilience and vulnerability in the context of sustainable development she urged. Minister Rodrigues-Birkett pointed out that when a natural disaster strikes the Caribbean it is unlike the United Kingdom, as it is a devastating national event which wipes out significant percentages of a country’s GDP, which lead to a constant rebuilding and replacing lost infrastructure which has contributed to the high debt situation in several small Caribbean countries.

Stressing on climate change, the Minister observed that, “the increasing frequency and severity of climatic events along with the deepening threats to our security from the mounting illicit trafficking in drugs and small arms through our region, as well as the growing incidence of health pandemics further burden our attempts at economic resilience.”

Nevertheless, she stated that many Caribbean countries are set to meet several of the MDGs by the 2015 deadline.  She posited that whilst concerns exist that gains may be reversed under current trends, steps are being taken to address the difficult economic situations, “undertaking the required structural reforms and applying the bitter fiscal medicine necessary despite their potential unpleasant political side effects.”

However, there is still dependency on international development partners, including the United Kingdom, “to better understand our present situation and the many constraints that impede our best efforts and to highlight these realities on our behalf in the European Union, and in the international decision-making fora such as the G20 where our voices are not heard and our realities perceived as insignificant and thus marginalised. We are only asking that the method used to classify us be amended accordingly.”

Minister Rodrigues-Birkett pointed out that the devastation inflicted by severe storms on St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia and Dominica last December, was one example of the vulnerabilities faced by Caribbean countries.

Focusing on the tourism industry essential to Caribbean, the Minister commended the UK amendment of the Air Passenger Duty bands to a reduced level. “We see this action as a first step in the right direction.”

She pointed also to difficulties being experienced by Caribbean business persons and artistes in obtaining visas for EU countries including the United Kingdom, in their efforts to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) to undertake trade in goods and services.

“Our students in the United Kingdom are also experiencing difficulties in obtaining job-training placements because of immigration impediments. As I said earlier, Mr. Co-Chairman, we are more than willing to help ourselves, but in attempting to do so, we find ourselves hemmed in by obstacles of all sorts. I believe that many of them can be resolved through dialogue leading to a better understanding.”

The Minister urged focus on stronger partnerships for prosperity with emphasis being placed on energy security, the enhancing of skills and education levels that redound to the benefit of youth employability, economic development, crime and security which are increasingly impinging on economic and social development.