PM Douglas commends Chile’s President

St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister the Right Honourable Dr. Denzil Douglas

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, MARCH 9TH2012 CUOPM)- St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister The Right Honourable Dr. Denzil L.Douglas has commended Chilean President, His Excellency Sebastian Pineria Echenique and his delegation for its hospitality extended to participants from the Community during the recently concluded CARICOM-Chile Joint Commission Meeting in Santiago, Chile.

In an exchange of views with the Chilean leader and Heads of CARICOM at the 23rdInter-Sessional meeting of the Conference in Paramaribo, Suriname, Prime Minister Douglas also expressed his gratitude to Chile for its assistance in the area of health, specifically with HIV/AIDS which ensured the region’s provision of care, treatment and support for persons living with the condition.

Dr. Douglass also expressed his gratitude for the support received from the Government of Chile during the UN’s High-Level Summit on Non Communicable Diseases, where the region played a leading role in bringing to the attention of the global community the importance of taking decisive actions to decrease the negative effects of the diseases.

He further emphasized the need for support from the Government of Chile as the Caribbean takes follow-up actions to report on the progress in confronting the NCDs. The Right Honourable Prime Minister is the CARICOM lead Head on Health Issues.

Prime Minister Douglas also spoke very passionately about the need to restructure the international financial system to reflect the issues of concern to the small, vulnerable economies, especially the Most Highly Indebted Countries, many of which including several in the OECS, have been graduated to status of middle income, based on their per capita.

This classification, the Prime Minister noted, has resulted in the inability of countries such as St. Kitts and Nevis to access concessionary loans and Grants.

He therefore enlisted the support of the Chilean Delegation in its capacity as a member of the G20 to advocate on behalf of CARICOM, during the upcoming June Summit to be held in Mexico, to address the issues of concern for the small vulnerable economies.

The main issues identified included debt relief, strengthening of the financial regulations and the strengthening of the social dimensions of the globalization. These are to be achieved through the reform and restructuring of the International Financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

In responding to the intervention of the Honourable Prime Minister, the President of Chile committed to using its membership in the G20 to supporting CARICOM’s position on the reform and restricting of the International Financial system.