CELAC held a highly successful meeting – Berridge

THE COMMUNITY OF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STATES (CELAC) BLOCK OF NATIONS RECENTLY HELD A SUCCESSFUL FORUM focused on South-South cooperation in Buenos Aires, Argentina said Samuel Berridge, Senior Assistant Secretary in the office of Prime Minister, Dr Terrance Drew.

“So, we discussed issues such as Climate Change, infrastructure development, and healthcare development. We spoke about one of the ways in achieving this, (noting it) through cooperation with other countries from the global south,” Berridge said in an exclusive with www.sknnewssource.com   

“Mexico in particular is willing to lend support in the infrastructure development of the healthcare sector. On a bilateral level, they have offered to build police stations for the Federation in the past, and had offered scholarships among other things,” Berridge stressed.

CELAC is a political body encompassing leaders of a number of countries that meet annually to address critical issues affecting the block.

“They meet and speak on issues of critical importance to them. Every country in this part of the region, excluding the United State of America (USA) and Canada, is an independent country and belongs to CELAC. It is similar to the UN General Assembly, and we speak on a number of issues and look at South-South cooperation. [We examine] how we can cooperate with each other and help each other as we achieve our development objectives,” he explained.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in the past, explained “the countries of the South have contributed to more than half of the world’s growth in recent years; intra-south trade is higher than ever, accounting for more than a quarter (25 percent) of all world trade; the outflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) from the South represent a third (33 percent) of the global flows; and remittances from migrant workers to low and middle-income countries reached US $466B last year, which helped lift millions of families out of poverty.”

Through South-South cooperation there have been “innovative forms of knowledge exchange, technology transfer, emergency response and recovery of livelihoods led by the South are transforming lives,” said Guterres in November 2018, during the inauguration of the 10th South-South Development Expo at UN Headquarters in New York.

CELAC is a political grouping involving Heads of Government and Heads of State where, according to Berridge, a number of issues are usually addressed between the 33 member countries. He stressed that some of the most critical issues addressed this year dealt with post-COVID-related issues.

St Kitts and Nevis, he said, depends heavily on its development partners from the global south to assist in achieving their objectives. The Senior Assistant Secretary disclosed this is of paramount importance as the Terrance Drew administration seeks to achieve its goals.

“The meeting is a forum for those kinds of engagements,” Berridge noted.

When statements are made and placed on the records, they are usually placed on the work programme.

“It’s actually when the work programme is elaborated that we will see it, and you know that St Vincent and the Grenadines right now have attained the temporary presidency of CELAC. Prime Minister Gonsalves is filling that role. He has a whole staff, he has an entire secretariat which will draft the work programme and ensure that each member state, particularly from CARICOM, benefits. The meat of the matter is in the work programme,” Berridge explained.

The work programme is quite extensive, and addresses every single area of sustainable development. Because of this, climate change, poverty alleviation, and security are all incorporated into the work programme. This is vital as CELAC seeks to ensure that these and other critical issues are properly addressed in the work programme, Berridge noted.

Basseterre maximises its attendance at the forum to hold bilateral meetings with other CELAC members.

“We were able to engage Guatemala with the view of building trade-related linkages, cultural linkages and also securing scholarships in Spanish,” Berridge disclosed.

Part of the agenda of St Kitts and Nevis is to ensure that “a larger percentage of the population becomes bilingual or trilingual, so, if we can secure scholarships for our youth in the area of science and technology, all the general areas, that would certainly be beneficial to us,” Berridge declared.