President Donald Ramotar today addressed the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on behalf of the Caribbean Community on the occasion of the UN high-level Thematic Debate on the State of the World Economy during which he highlighted the global concern about the persistent adverse state of the world economy and the UN’s obligation to ensure that the response to these challenges is inclusive, effective and sustained.
President Ramotar urged the international community to craft effective solutions, not only to the larger issues at the heart of the global downturn, but solutions that also respond to the peculiar development challenges of the small vulnerable states of CARICOM, states which he noted are often lost in multilateral considerations for urgent action.
Work, he said, began three years ago, with the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development, to stimulate the recovery of the world economy which today is still fragile with bleak medium-term prospects.

CARICOM’s call

The President stated that, “while the international community is prepared to explore new approaches, policies and initiatives considered taboo or morally hazardous in the past, for the developed countries who now find themselves in difficulties - with huge debt overhang and servicing, huge fiscal deficits and high levels of unemployment”, he said they are not prepared to move with the same broadmindedness on initiatives that the Caribbean regards as vital for a sustainable medium-term strategy.
As such, he said, “CARICOM calls for special consideration of debt relief measures for small heavily indebted middle income countries. We also call for a more structured and inclusive inter-governmental collaboration on international tax matters.”
The Guyanese Head of State asserted that, “We must be ready to take the bold steps necessary to ensure that the challenges we face do not result in development remaining the province of a few and an aspiration for many. CARICOM calls for a clear agenda of concerted efforts and greater attention to addressing the circumstances of small vulnerable states. The UN has an important role to ensure that all concerns are taken into account and in the fashioning of the global response.”

Crises
Noting that it is premature to talk of recovery, President Ramotar said any sign of renewed growth is still extremely uneven. He observed that while several major contributors to global output are unable to implement adequately the measures needed to stimulate a lasting recovery, “The challenges in the Eurozone, faltering growth in the US economy, and a slowdown in growth in major emerging economies are indicative of the fundamental problems that still exist at the global level.” 
Explaining that while the cause of the global financial and economic crises has not been adequately addressed, developing countries have borne and continue to bear a high cost for the crises not of their own making.  “The current debate can therefore only be a prelude to more deliberate and concerted action by the UN in follow-up to previous undertakings,” he said.  
The financial and economic crises in conjunction with other challenges will slow the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Guyanese President noted, and pointed to increased poverty and hunger, and the fact that poverty eradication gains have been eroded. “The rise again in food prices, unless contained, could further aggravate the poverty challenge and have a devastating impact on poorer economies,” he declared.

President Donald Ramotar, Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh, and Ambassador George Talbot, Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) earlier today at the UN General Assembly High Level Thematic Debate on the State of the World Economy

Developing countries

Regarding international trade, President Ramotar stated that developing countries are already wrestling with harmful trading arrangements, and the consequences of an inconclusive Doha Development Round. 
He posited that unfavourable effects have included cuts to social programmes, reductions in the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI), on international trade volumes and the level of indebtedness of developing countries. “These factors and others have had knock-on effects on the availability of domestic and international financing for development, not to mention multiple socio-economic implications,” President Ramotar said. 
“CARICOM reality reflects a number of these pathologies: slow growth; high unemployment, particularly among youths; high levels of indebtedness and limited policy space for transformative action; depressed tourism receipts; and external threats to legitimate engagement by some of our Member States in the financial services sector.”
Middle income status, viewed through the prism of GDP per capita, he stated, has become an albatross, belying the real challenges faced by the Caribbean countries and constraining access to much needed resources. Crime and violence are the worst manifestations of the challenges faced, he said.
Ramotar noted that while the G-20 action may have helped to forestall a deepening of the crisis and to mitigate some of its worst effects, ‘CARICOM believes that the pace and range of actions taken by the international community have not been commensurate with the severity and urgency of the crisis’. 
“The current global reforms are not as ambitious as desired. Even the reforms being contemplated do not take account of the growing influence of the developing world as a whole - developing countries will drive 80% of the global demand - much less address the concerns of the small countries,” President Ramotar stated.

The Government of Guyana has announced that it will continue the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) initiative with the assistance and support of stakeholders.
A statement from the Cabinet Office of the Office of the President today said that while the administration has contemplated the impact of the opposition budget cuts, specifically on its Information Communication Technology (ICT) 4G National Strategy, the vision which propelled the OLPF initiative has been affected by those cuts.
Thousands of the laptops have already been distributed to persons in the lower income bracket since the programme began.
“The Administration, refusing to be daunted by the most recent anti-development actions of the opposition has opted to pursue the more short-term component of the initiative, and that is, the verification and the distribution, using support and assistance from stakeholders,” the statement read.
“The Office of the President has declared, we will receive and, we will continue to distribute the laptops. The Office of the President further states, we are urging residents in areas of distribution to come out to assist and to support the effort to distribute the laptops, subsequent to verification,” the statement further stated.
The Office of the President categorically said that, “we will not allow the unconscionable actions of the political opposition in Parliament to frustrate our ambitions and our plans for the future of Guyana and for Guyanese. The ICT 4G National Strategy will continue to be enforced.”
The OLPF, pioneered by former President Bharrat Jagdeo is being implemented over three years, to benefit 90,000 families and communities across the country.
The criteria for distribution will depend on several factors including an income test among others for families to fit the classification of less fortunate.
The Guyana Government solicited the support of the Chinese Government for the supply of devices for the programme and the move resulted in a Chinese company being the supplier of the laptops and the setting up of a Haier service centre in Guyana.
The OLPF is part of government’s vision for the ICT sector which it is optimistic will lead the way forward for Guyana and will be one of the new sectors to generate greater disposable income and create thousands of jobs.

Guyana's Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh today co-chaired a UN round table on "Reducing Debt Vulnerability, Managing Inflation/Deflation", while attending the United Nations General Assembly High Level Thematic Debate on the State of the World Economy.
The Minister in his opening remarks stated that the current crisis has seen many large and widely diversified economies of the world grappling with the challenges of unsustainable debt burdens, the need to restart growth in the face of fiscal constraints, and ongoing market volatility inducing price uncertainty and undermining predictability in investment decisions.
He pointed out that the magnitude of these challenges and the elusiveness of lasting solutions are multiplied many fold in the case of small vulnerable economies such as in the Caribbean.
He reiterated that the Region has some of the world's most severely indebted nations, rendering fiscal space for counter-cyclicality nonexistent. This situation is further exacerbated by the natural and structural impediments to productive sector diversification, and the close link between the Region's current dominant productive sectors and the fortunes of large neighbouring economies, as reflected in Caribbean tourism's close dependence on North American disposable incomes.
As a result, opportunities for growing the economy out of fiscal stress are extremely limited.
The Minister also pointed out that imported price volatility, such as for key commodities as oil and food, place stress on external balances and undermine the predictability of investment flows.
Against this background, Minister Singh stated that the UN had an important role to play in analysing the challenges faced by small vulnerable economies and, moreso, in helping to craft viable solutions.
He suggested that such efforts can manifest themselves in the definition of a new development model or paradigm that takes into account the realities and challenges of smallness, the definition of trade and other multilateral arrangements which recognise the implications of smallness, and the development of instruments to be applied by the international financial institutions to help small vulnerable economies return to debt sustainability.
He urged the UN to avoid the peril of focusing solely on large countries of systemic economic importance, to the exclusion of small vulnerable countries and economies.
Along with Minister Singh, the roundtable was co-chaired by the Minister of Finance of Morocco Mr. Nizar Baraka, and the Deputy Chairman of the Indian Planning Commission Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Amongst the panellists at the round table were Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi Secretary General of UNCTAD, and retired US Senator Alan Simpson who co-chaired in 2010 the US National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility.
Minister Singh is currently attending the UN High Level Debate as a member of the Guyana delegation led by President Donald Ramotar, who addressed the plenary session of the debate earlier this morning.