ST.JOHN'S Antigua, April 16th, 2012 -- Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda the Hon. W. Baldwin Spencer has highlight the inability of CARICOM states to access new financial facilities for development of their economies.
The country’s leader was speaking at the Sixth Summit of the Americas which opened on Saturday in Cartagena Colombia on Saturday.
Prime Minister Spencer said that because countries within the region are classified as middle income nations based on their per capita income, they are unable to gain access to critical funding needed to stimulate their economies particularly during this period of economic decline.
“Antigua and Barbuda believes that this classification is too mechanical and two other criteria namely, a Vulnerability index and a Resilience index should be used to determine access to the new financing facilities.
To date, we have been unsuccessful in bringing about any effective change to the eligibility criteria of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) but we continue to hope that this matter will be given the due attention it deserves,” said the country’s leader.
Prime Minister Spencer also touched on ways countries within the OECS grouping have been dealing with the global recession. He highlighted Antigua and Barbuda’s progress in ICT’s.
“Antigua and Barbuda holds firmly to the view that human capital, life long learning and quality education play key roles in the development of society. My Government has therefore sought to advance the education agenda focusing on early childhood, universal secondary and childhood education, teacher training, Information Communication Technology (ICT) and testing.”
Prime Minister Spencer also pointed out that due to increasing importance of knowledge based activities his country’s development of the Connect Antigua Barbuda Initiative has positioned the country as the ICT capital of the region.
“At the micro level, this initiative has already resulted in direct benefit to communities with the operationalization of Community Computer Access Centers across the twin-island Nation. We have also provided 1600 laptops and broadband connectivity to teachers and beginning in September of this year we will commence a comprehensive roll out of computers to all students on the island,” pointed out the nation’s leader.
Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Dr. Ralph Gonsalves will present the OECS position at the Summit which is being held under the theme “Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity.”
Prime Minister Spencer is attending the Sixth Summit of the Americas in Colombia along with the nations Ambassador to the Organisation of American States Her Excellency Dame Deborah-Mae Lovell and Minister Counselor Ann-Marie Layne.
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