Speech by the Vice President of the Republic of Cuba, Salvador Valdés Mesa, high-level meeting on resource mobilization for Small Island Developing States
Mr. Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General,
Excellences, distinguished guests,
I appreciate the call for this high-level event.
It is a fact that the imbalances of the international financial system do not provide the necessary stability to achieve the sustainable development goals and meet the special needs of small Island Developing States.
The challenges exposed are exponentially exacerbated for Cuba by the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States for more than 6 decades and, by the arbitrary inclusion of the country in the unilateral list of alleged sponsor states of terrorism.
In the current context, addressing the financing deficit in a comprehensive way will require, among other actions:
1.- Recapitalize the Multilateral Development Banks and improve their loan conditions.
2.- Strengthen the system of public development banks, with greater capacity and more cooperation between national and multilateral banks, to align their activities with the SDGs, the Paris Agreement and the new Antigua Barbuda Agenda.
3.- Fulfil once and for all the commitment of developed countries to Official Development Assistance, through allocations based on vulnerabilities, not only on income.
4.- Define the access of small Island Developing States to financing on favourable terms and technical cooperation based on criteria beyond Gross Domestic Product, which contemplate multidimensional vulnerability.
5.- Comprehensively review the International Monetary Fund's surcharge policy, including its suspension, significant permanent reduction or elimination.
6.- Implement a specific service to support the debt sustainability of small Island Developing States, involving multilateral, bilateral and private official creditors, under the auspices of the United Nations.
7.-Redesign contracts and debt instruments to include relief, exchange or restructuring clauses in the face of natural disasters or macroeconomic shocks.
8.- Capitalize the fund on loss and damage, implement the Global Adaptation Goal and establish a new quantified climate financing goal, which takes into account the priorities and needs of small Island Developing States.
9.- Rationalize the role of credit rating agencies, so that they stop being arbitrators and actors in the same financial market that they regulate.
The alternative for our countries can no longer be based on old formulas. The only viable solution lies in the rethinking of the unjust and unequal international economic order and the current bases that define North-South relations and life on the planet.
Thank you very much.
(non official translation)