ROADTOWN Tortola BVI, 23rd January 2012:
Heads of Government, fellow heads of delegations, delegates, friends and colleagues:
I am delighted to convey to you the good wishes for the success of this Ministerial Conference from the Premier of the British Virgin Islands, Dr. D. Orlando Smith OBE, as well as the entire government and the people of the BVI. I would like to particularly thank OCTA Chairman Premier Ruben Meade of Montserrat, along with OCTA’s Executive Committee, for organising this year’s meeting.
Future Relations Between the OCTs and EU
We as OCTs share common values with the EU. Broadly speaking, we share a respect for human rights, freedom of speech, democracy, the rule of law, free markets and many other issues that are the hallmarks of our societies. These rich values are indeed the pillars of a strong OCT-EU relationship.
I believe that the focus of our partnership going forward should remain on reducing OCT’s overall vulnerability as Small Islands States in the global economy. A key feature of this is trade as OCTs move from aid toward self-sustainability. With the help of the EU we can overcome our economic handicaps and better protect our fragile environments.
The EU of course will need to carefully consider the specific challenges and circumstances facing each of our countries and territories and recognize their need for differential treatment. On this point I would like to ask for your support in encouraging the EU to review its eligibility criteria for territorial funds.
In the BVI we find ourselves in a peculiar situation in that our per capita income is considered too high by the EU to receive this form of funding, but our Gross National Product is grossly insufficient to meet our national development needs, infrastructure being a key area. We also find ourselves having fewer and fewer options to raise funding for development projects as restrictions on our ability to borrow in the form of loans have tightened in recent years.
The BVI’s per capita income masks the fact that income in the territory is not evenly distributed across the population and remains concentrated in the financial services sector. Furthermore, as a result of rising inflation, a disproportionate amount of the population’s income goes toward covering the high costs of food, rent, fuel and utilities.
We believe that it is important that these facts are understood and that the EU takes them into consideration and not simply exclude the BVI and others from development assistance on a GNP per capita basis. This measure is increasingly viewed as inadequate and international practice is now shifting toward Gross National Income per capita, which provides a more accurate measure as pointed out in the EU’s 2011 OCT Statistical Systems report.
My delegation will be calling on the EU to provide some access to territorial funds, but of course not at the level rightfully enjoyed by the least developed OCTs. We hope we have your support. We will also be standing behind our colleagues calls for the EU to provide OCT’s with greater access to EU horizontal programmes.
Thank you for your indulgence.
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