Golden opportunity beckons for new economic policy

May 14, 2009 News

Global Financial Crisis…

President Bharrat Jagdeo speaking at the 17th Session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, yesterday, told the session that the current global economic downturn presents a golden opportunity given that the international community is moving to create a new global institutional and regulatory framework.

“As this framework is formed, we must ensure that it creates the platform to meaningfully integrate sustainable development into global decision-making.”

He noted that awareness-raising, though vital, is not enough to achieve sustainable development and as an international community, it is incumbent that world leaders turn the awareness into solutions that make the difference that is urgently required.

The President urged that success will not be achieved through rhetorical declarations or aspirational action plans, “and we won’t succeed through unreformed multilateral institutions that were designed for a radically different era.”

He said that what is needed is to embrace a global responsibility to forge a new international policy environment whose effectiveness is commensurate with the challenges we face.

“This year presents us with two significant opportunities to do this.”

Jagdeo told the session that “Future generations will not forgive us and many of the important policies emanating from the Johannesburg, Barbados, Mauritius, and other major UN Conferences will remain unrealized if we fail to grasp these two opportunities.

“And in both cases, true multilateralism and international partnership are not just desirable out of a sense of solidarity or fairness.”

He added that the old paradigm where small groups of countries could decide on behalf of the world, will not work.

“I welcome the emergence of the G20 grouping which enables a meaningful role for the developing world in global decision-making…I believe that the design of a new global financial architecture will be better because of the experience and insights of the large developing countries…

“But I also feel that this architecture will be lopsided in favour of the large countries of our world unless the G20 is augmented by the voices of the small countries of the developing world.”