Georgetown : President Donald Ramotar said that the region must consolidate its gains, build on its successes and immunise itself from the difficulties that exist. He was at the time delivering remarks at the opening ceremony at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) at the Guyana International Conference Centre.
He said that the graduation of countries to the middle-income category has reduced a lot of concessional financing to the region. This is now affecting the socio-economic gains that countries have made.
“It would be a tragedy if we retrogress…we still need in many ways, some type of concessional arrangements to ensure that our progress will be steady…we cannot afford a reversal,” the President said.
The CDB on the other hand, is one such institution that has and continues to play an important role in promoting integration and developing and consolidating unity in the region. As such, the President said that it is imperative for countries of the region to ensure to that this institution grows from strength to strength.
He called on the bank and its leadership to assist the region to identify new sources of growth, as well as to support countries to deal with huge debts that threaten to retard the region’s development.
President Ramotar emphasised the need for countries to look to pursue new areas of growth and in so doing, identify the instruments and resources that would be needed to achieve those goals.
Information Communication Technology (ICT) is one area that has over the years, been impacting on every aspect of life and as such, countries must use it more widely to not only advance the integration process, but to develop and strengthen their economic base as well.
He said that it has been proven over and over again that the countries with the fastest growing economies and the highest standards of living are not necessarily those with the most natural resources, but with strong human capital.
“The role of the bank in helping in this area; helping the region to build its human capital in education, health, housing and other areas is vital to the development of our region,” President Ramotar said.
He said that like the global economic and financial crisis, climate change is another global issue that the region had very little to do with; however since it cannot escape its devastating effects; it must be part of the solution.
For this reason he said, the region must try to turn this phenomenon into an opportunity by using a green economy to propel economic development. Reference was made to Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), which is designed to do just that.
In light of the region’s high food importation bill, the President called for greater investment into the agriculture sector and for the more science and technology to be incorporated into the operations of the sector to make it more efficient.
“We should look at our potential in the region…the need for us to have food security is extremely important and for us to do that we have to build on our agriculture potential. We also have to broaden what we produce,” President Ramotar said.
The President also pointed to the need for countries to maximise the use of their products by adding more value. He said that more emphasis needs to be placed on producing and exporting finished products rather than mere raw materials.
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