Taiwan praised for assisting St. Kitts and Nevis in meeting Millennium Development Goals

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, SEPTEMBER 22ND 2010 (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has praised the assistance of the Government and people of the Republic of China on Taiwan in helping the twin-island Federation meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
 
“On the issue of Global partnership, Prime Minister Douglas reported that due to diminishing Official Development Assistance (ODA), St. Kitts and Nevis has had to fund and sustain MDG programmes mainly from the scarce resources of the state,” said Dr. Douglas in a statement to the United Nations General Assembly High-level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals in New York
 
“Therefore, we welcome the contribution of the government and people of Taiwan to our national efforts to meet the MDGs through investment in agriculture, food security and technology,” said Prime Minister Douglas.
 
He said such partnership could be a model for developed countries some of whom have failed to live up to their commitment.
 
“I assure you, Mr. President, that our progress towards achieving the 2015 MDG's is the result of careful planning and prudent management,” said Dr. Douglas, who noted that “we live in complex times with myriad challenges where despite our very carefully calibrated  macroeconomic policies, fiscal prudence and financial programs; our best efforts and best practices are often undermined by external forces as we have witnessed since the onset in 2008 of the global financial crisis and economic meltdown.”
 
He said that progress made through costly investments can be blown away in a matter of minutes leaving St. Kitts and Nevis’ small vulnerable economy to the mercy of an already tight financial market and the unavailability of grants or concessional loans.
 
“This has been exacerbated by the unfair calculation of our GDP per capita which places St. Kitts and Nevis in a higher bracket than reality justifiably supports,” said Dr. Douglas.
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He further noted that like other nations, St. Kitts and Nevis despite its careful efforts to craft
and implement “our own stimulus packages, this issue of the GDP per capita remains a major handicap - one that pre-dates the global financial and economic crises.”
 
“It is unfair, arbitrary, indefensible and economically destabilising. For, while we manage our affairs responsibly, efficiently, and competently, we are still denied access to crucial concessional loans,” said Prime Minister Douglas.
 
He pointed out that in the case of St. Kitts and Nevis, “the crushing burden of the high costs of borrowing; economic and social dislocations resulting from the closure of the sugar industry five years ago; the downturn in the global economy and the drying up of investment capital; the assault on our service sector; and the rising level of commercial indebtedness threaten to undermine our progress in fulfilling the MDGs and to unravel the success of our small yet vulnerable country.”
 
Prime Minister Douglas told world leaders that in addition to this and the impact of the economic downturn, “as we speak, hurricanes swirl throughout this hemisphere.”
 
He said that the regularity and ferocity of floods, hurricanes, the incidence of sea level rise and other catastrophic events are bold reminders that the consequences of climate change are real.
 
“However, Mr. President, the fact that we are this concerned about the unraveling of the progress made, at this point in our review, just five years before the target date for the achievement of the MDGs is not consistent with the spirit of the Millennium Development Goals,” said Prime Minister Douglas, stating that he is not convinced that this is in any way indicative of the constructive multilateral collaboration “we speak about so boldly for the last ten years.”
 
He used the opportunity to encourage nations assembled for the review summit process to take action, whether in their legislative bodies or in multilateral agencies to promote the kind of collaborative efforts which advance the common good and place partnership above parochialism and move “our peoples further along that path to personal growth and the fulfillment of their individual potential.”