Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller greets Honorary Consul General for the Republic of Nauru, Kartar Singh Balla, and his wife Gumit during the gala dinner to close the Eighth World Congress of Consuls at the Ritz-Carlton, in Montego Bay, St. James, on Wednesday. - Claudine Housen/Staff Photographer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Countries in the Caribbean must focus on poverty reduction as a part of a regional trade reform agenda, says Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

The Prime Minister, who was speaking at a gala dinner to close the meeting of the Eighth World Congress of Consuls, in Montego Bay, St. James, on Wednesday, said this was necessary as Latin American and the Caribbean have been experiencing an increase in foreign direct investment and global trade.

Mrs. Simpson Miller also noted that, despite noteworthy structural adjustments in Caribbean economies, trade reforms and fiscal discipline, poverty and unemployment still pose a serious challenge.

"As a region, we have become a poster child for liberalisation and privatisation," she said. "But it has to be admitted that we have not been impressive in poverty reduction and improving human welfare."

Using the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a yardstick, Mrs. Simpson Miller also said their formulation reflected the dissatisfaction among global policymakers to progress in the fight against poverty and called for the creation of just trading arrangements.

Right to development

"What this is clearly saying to us is that the world's poor, marginalised and dispossessed (also) have a right to development," Mrs. Simpson Miller said.

Set for the year 2015, the MDGs are an agreed set of development goals which represent a global partnership that has grown from the commitments and targets established at the world summits of the 1990s. Poor countries have pledged to govern better and invest in their people through health care and education. Rich countries have pledged to support them through aid, debt relief, and fairer trade.

"We must continue to press for an international economic system that delivers justice to the poor," the Prime Minister added. "We are all losers ultimately, if we do not create fair and just trading arrangements (as the) rich and poor alike will have their interest threatened if there is continued injustice and inequalities in the international trading system."

In closing, Mrs. Simpson Miller congratulated the honorary consuls for their contribution to development in the region and urged them to continue to work together in creating new linkages that further enhance existing agreements.