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St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Commonwealth Ministers of Finance Meeting, Dr. the Hon. Denzil L. Douglas and the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, His Excellency Don Mc Kinnon entering the Sir Cecil Jacobs Auditorium for the official opening in St. Kitts. |
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS SEPTEMBER 28TH (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister and Minster of Finance, Dr. the Hon. Denzil L. Douglas said Tuesday that the global economic system continues to throw up new and extremely formidable challenges to small states that quite often threaten the very survival of such nations.
He told delegates to a Meeting of Ministers of Finance from the 53-nation Commonwealth being held here in St. Kitts, that the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), which all have relatively open economies, “the volumes of trade, investment and tourist arrivals have swayed back and forth in response to the uncertainties and gyrations in the international economy, especially in the US economy.”
“The new trading regimes such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Financial Action Task Force (FTAA) and COTONOU arrangements have not helped us in combating these problems.
Instead, they have adversely affected our export prospects and threaten to undermine the already slender revenue base of our economies.
These problems are being exacerbated by the fact that our currency is pegged to the US Dollar and the misalignment of major currencies in recent years has been a major source of concern for us here in this part of the world,” said Prime Minister Douglas.
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Delegates to the Commonwealth Minisiters of Finance Meeting in St. Kitts. (Photos by Erasmus Williams) |
He said that the geopolitical climate and the impact of terrorism have high explicit and implicit costs for small countries. He cited the costs of potential negative impacts on the tourist industry, the major foreign exchange earner and the increase in the price of oil, the major import commodity.
“The explicit cost of increasing the level of security at our airports and harbours, and of putting regulations in place to combat terrorist financing and money laundering, also increase the huge burden that small islands states must now bear.
Of course, it can be argued that all countries – large and small - must incur such costs, but these costs include a huge fixed component that does not vary with the size of the country so that the burden borne by small states is grossly disproportionate to size and population,” said Prime Minister Douglas.
