| – ACP-EU representativeCo-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Glenys Kinnock, has said that just five percent of the global financial bailout would pay for all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved.Her comments came at the third regional meeting of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly which was held last week at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.She told the gathering that the meeting comes in a time of turmoil and crisis. According to Kinnock, the Caribbean Development Bank has warned governments, households and businesses in the region to brace themselves to deal with the global financial crisis, and indeed to be ready to address the negative effects of what may well be a deep and long recession.Co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly,Throwback Jerseys, Glenys KinnockThe reality, she added, is that the World Bank estimates that every one percent drop in global growth could be consigning 200 million more people to chronic poverty.Kinnock said that, as the rich world focuses on bank rescues and stimulus packages, the persons in this region must remember that it is poor people in developing countries who are far more exposed if their economies falter.According to her, they will see lower growth, volatile exchange rates and soft markets, higher unemployment and poverty levels, which in the long run will jeopardise efforts to meet the MDG targets.“Indeed, it is estimated that just five percent of the global financial bailout would pay for all the Millennium Development Goals to be achieved.”Kinnock added that currency movements alone will wipe out almost five billion dollars worth of aid in 2009, and development assistance may fall by as much as $300B over two years, which will result in a 25 percent gap.“I think the G-22 countries should listen to the voice of the developing world, which it didn’t do in its last meeting, and should call for a development emergency meeting for 2009 and urge every possible effort to accelerate disbursement of already approved funds which sit there needing to be used.”She said that a critical element for this region alongside the slowdown in investment, difficulties in raising capital, falls in remittances and in exports, is the effect of all this to tourism in the region.“Not so much for Guyana, Suriname or Haiti, but for all the other Caribbean countries it is an enormous problem.”According to her, tourism has become the driver of economic advances in many Caribbean countries.She added that Caribbean tourism is already facing fierce competition from other global destinations, and all of this will also affect airline taxes. |
