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STATEMENT BY
THE TEMPORARY ALTERNATE GOVERNOR FOR ITALY
MRS. LUDOVICA SODERINI
Madam Chair, honourable Ministers, Mr. President, Governors, Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of Italy, I would like to thank the Government of Canada and the city of Halifax for their warm hospitality, and congratulate the Bank’s Management and Staff for the excellent arrangements of this event.
Despite the very high oil price in 2007 that has caused severe difficulties to several countries in the Caribbean, the Region has witnessed a positive growth. However, signs that economic growth may slow down have to be watched carefully.
The Caribbean countries are small economies characterised by high vulnerability, particularly due to environmental problems. The climate change issue, including sea level rise and the phenomenon of more frequent and more violent tropical storms and hurricanes, can affect the productive sector of the economy with a severe impact on communities and community infrastructures.
Social inequality still remains a big challenge for the Region, given that the benefits of economic growth have continued to be distributed very unequally. Some sectors and some groups of the population: women and indigenous people, are left out and are marginalised within the process of development.
Addressing all these problems must remain high on the agenda of CDB. Poverty reduction, climate change and social inclusion must be at the centre of the Bank’s entire activities.
The negotiation of the Special Development Fund (SDF) and the long-term strategic planning framework, which is being developed to succeed the current plan that ends in 2009, offers an opportunity for CDB to reshape its vision in order to address these issues and help the countries within the Region to be ready to face the challenges ahead.
We believe that the Bank should focus now on selected actions, programmes and sectors where it has a competitive advantage in terms of effectiveness and impact on development and poverty reduction. The core themes proposed in the strategic framework for the SDF: regional integration, development effectiveness, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability and climate change, are a good basis to work with.
I would like now to focus briefly on four points:
1. Regional Integration
Regional Integration supported by inter-regional infrastructure and by the harmonisation of regulatory frameworks and legal systems, offers the most credible strategy for tackling the Caribbean's development challenges for stimulating growth and reducing poverty. Regional integration can only succeed if certain economic and non-economic preconditions are fulfilled in all the countries of the Region. The Bank can play an important role to help countries to realise such conditions.
2. Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change
Environment provides goods and services that sustain human development and so it must be conserved and maintained. As we reconfirm the importance of sustainable development, we need to focus on the most important links between poverty, the environment, and sustainable development. The environment matters greatly to people living in poverty. They are those who suffer the most from the adverse effect of climate change. Addressing these poverty- environment linkages should be at the core of national efforts to eradicate poverty, and should be the main thrust of the common actions by the international cooperation. We support an increased awareness on the need to mainstreaming climate change adaptation and mitigation policies into development programmes. We believe that all the Multilateral Development Banks, and along with these the CDB, need to accelerate their efforts to combat climate change and to include the environmental sustainability in their agenda. In this regard, we welcome the inclusion of such issues in the proposed approach for the “New Strategic Plan”.
3. Poverty Reduction
In order to face the primary challenge of poverty reduction, it is essential to guarantee access to basic infrastructure and better education for all the people of the Region. We believe that an efficient education system is a core component in the fight against poverty and inequality. We also believe that strengthening the private sector is a critical factor to reduce poverty, increase competitiveness and to achieve the MDGs. However, to make results durable and sustainable, it is also requires the transfer of knowledge and the setting up of strong institutions and rules. We urge the Bank to better integrate capacity building and poverty alleviation in the design of every Bank-financed project.
4. The Bank’s effectiveness
Critical challenges still lie ahead and we need to make sure that the Bank is well prepared to face them in the coming years and is able to demonstrate the effectiveness of its assistance to the Borrowing Member Countries. A strong organisational structure and highly-skilled personnel are the basis for the creation of an efficient institution. Many improvements have recently been recorded in the field of Bank-efficiency and performance. However, we need to further enhance the Bank's capacity to deliver to its clients by strengthening the structure of this institution and enlarging the number of its shareholders. The ultimate objective is to transform the CDB into a better-functioning institution, with the organisational structure and the quality of services consistent with its mission of becoming a responsive and efficient agent for social and economic development in the Region.
Finally, Madam Chair, I wish to express a warm welcome to the delegation of Brazil. Italy strongly supports the access to the Bank by new members, both regional and non-regional, in order to foster our multilateral effort to help the Caribbean address the critical issues of poverty and economic growth. We believe that Brazil’s membership will contribute to such achievements.
Madam Chair, I wish you, the Management and the Staff of the CDB every success for the challenges of the year to come. I also wish to reiterate the support of Italy to CDB.
Thank you for your attention.