St. Kitts – Nevis Economy Faring Well
Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
September 26, 2009 (CUOPM)
The 168-membership of the United Nations was told Saturday that St. Kitts and Nevis, the smallest nation in the western hemisphere continue to display resilience and make the necessary sacrifices to sustain itself despite the recent downturn in the international economy.
He told the 64th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in a 26 minute address on Saturday that the international economic crisis has made clear the urgent need for the restructuring and repair of the global economic system.
“As far as our access to capital is concerned, the result of hard work, and sound management have harsh and destabilizing implications, with unwelcome restrictions vis-a-vis debt relief and other key matters. As this moves forward, I urge that the very real vulnerabilities of small states that happen to have high per capita GDP’s be more clearly considered and reflected in multi-lateral policies, deliberations, and procedures,” said Prime Minister Douglas.
Small nations, Dr. Douglas said seek the support for a new debt forgiveness initiative within the framework of reform of the international financial institutions and the materialization of the concept of middle-income highly indebted countries where peculiarities and vulnerabilities no longer trigger the types of punitive actions.
“In addition, the global economic crisis, begun far beyond our shores, has nonetheless, made its way there, causing my country to have to develop and introduce its own stimulus package, forcing us to sacrifice urgently needed tax revenues in the interest of protecting employment, and necessitating our finding the means to shore up and advance the viability of our private sector,” Dr. Douglas pointed out.
St. Kitts and Nevis Dr Douglas said continues to invest in its people through education, retraining programmes and by working to attract international investments in critical sectors to generate employment and other business opportunities.
“By doing this, we hope to prepare for the future when the global economy eventually rebounds. It is no secret that our efforts can sometimes amount to very little because, for no fault of our own, it is a fact that when global crises occur small vulnerable economies tend to pay a disproportionately high price,” said Dr. Douglas.
The St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister told the UN General Assembly that under his leadership, the twin-island Federation will not play victim or assign blame.
“We prefer instead to work vigorously at the national level and to collaborate actively internationally to introduce measures and systems that transform our economy and improve the lives of our citizens. Going forward, we want our voices and ideas to inform whatever new architecture is developed to avoid the mistakes of the past. Therefore, we will support the measures established to follow up on issues pertaining to recovery from the global financial and economic crises. And, we intend to participate enthusiastically in the process to ensure that the recovery is comprehensive,” said Dr. Douglas, adding: “There are common challenges and shared responsibility to tackle them.”