Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
Jamaica's State Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Delano Franklyn, gestures during a news conference at the second South Summit of the G77 and China in Doha, Qatar, on June 13. - REUTERS
MINISTER OF State for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Senator Delano Franklyn, on Monday warned the United Nations (U.N.) that international financing arrangements must be restructured if developing countries are to eradicate poverty and hunger by 2015.
He called for the cancellation of all debts of the least-developed countries and the addressing of low- and middle-income countries' debt - which includes Jamaica. Mr. Franklyn was addressing the U.N. General Assembly on behalf of the G77 and China group of developing countries of which Jamaica is currently the chair.
Senator Franklyn was speaking ahead of this week's meeting of the U.N. Economic and Social Council.
This meeting, he told The Gleaner, was of "tremendous importance to Jamaica as our national economy's ability to grow is determined by the international environment."
Currently, he warned, Jamaica and other developing countries' ability to grow economically was threatened by their high rates of debt repayment. According to statistics by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), external interest rate payments on the national debt for the financial year 2004/5 was scheduled at $22.6 billion, 28.4 per cent more than that paid out in 2003/4.
"Governments, such as Jamaica, are constrained to create incentives for the private sector, especially small and medium-sized business because we must meet our debt obligations," Franklyn told the U.N. Debt repayments, he argued, should be restructured to meet internationally agreed development goals and in commodity-dependent developing countries, repayment schedules should accommodate adverse movements in the commodity markets.
"There is an increasing net transfer of resources," he continued, "from developing countries, as a group, to developed countries and multilateral financial institutions for debt servicing and other payments. Negative transfers have been occurring for the last eight years with US$312 billion alone in 2004."
MEETING THE TARGET
Developed countries, he told the U.N., needed to meet the target set in 2002 of 0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP) in overseas development assistance to all developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent to least-developed countries. The increase from 0.21 per cent of GNP in 2002 to 0.25 per cent in 2003 and 2004 was, he argued, still insufficient.
Asked for his expectations at the end of the week's discussions, Mr. Franklyn replied: "If we cannot find a timetable it will be a serious setback in eradicating world poverty. Countries must reaffirm their commitment to the 2015 targets and this can only be done if accompanied by the restructuring of international financing."
