Ambassador Odeen Ishmael is calling on SELA (Latin American Economic System) to champion the cause of the smaller economies within the forum of the multilateral financial institutions in discussions with the developed countries, and in deliberations with other regional organisations involved in the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) negotiations.
Ismael says this is an instrumental role that SELA can play as the "CARICOM countries have consistently called for the establishment of a Regional Inte-gration Fund to assist the smaller econ-omies to enable them to establish a competitive base for participation in the FTAA."
Guyana's Ambassador to the Ministerial Meeting of SELA, and Ambassador designate to Venezuela, told a recent forum in Caracas, Venezuela, that "to ensure economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean, our countries - our governments - have to tackle head-on the problem of poverty."
He notes also that despite numerous multilateral programmes formulated over the past 15 years, poverty in the Americas has not decreased. Actually, he says, the proportion of the poor has increased.
"…In general, while almost every country in the Americas has shown significant increases in their GDP and their per capita income, yet they as a collective are experiencing growing poverty. This clearly indicates that the wealth generated is not distributed equitably," Ishmael contends.
In that light, he is urging SELA to take on the task of formulating fresh ideas on how its member states can work individually and collectively to alleviate poverty.
He also posits that the alleviation of poverty is linked to the problem of the debt burden, observing that the development of many of the member states is negatively affected by the onerous foreign debt. "It is my view that SELA must continue to champion the issue of debt relief," Ishmael declares.
According to him, SELA can play a very practical role in making proposals on finding solutions to the debt problem.
"These suggestions will be very useful to the multilateral financial institutions which will have a direct role in working out debt forgiveness plans, and also to political bodies such as the OAS and the UN which will have to develop the political will to champion the cause of the heavily indebted poor countries," he argues.
During his address, he expressed congratulations to Dr Roberto Guarnieri of Venezuela on his unanimous election as Permanent Secretary of SELA and assured him that he can count on the support and cooperation of the Guyana delegation.