Developing Countries Must Help Themselves – Take Decisions to Secure Advancement – PM Golding

Prime Minister Bruce Golding on (Sept 27) told the United Nations General Assembly that developing countries must help themselves towards sustainable development.
“We must recognize that there is a lot that we can and must do for ourselves. Each of us must adopt and pursue with fixity of purpose the appropriate economic and social policies and good governance practices. We must be prepared to take the tough decisions that are so often necessary to secure the advancement of our people and we must never squander the sacrifices we call on them to make. President Obama was right when he declared at the High-Level meeting last Wednesday that each of us must assume leadership of our own transformation even while requiring the support of the international community,” he said.
Mr. Golding noted however, that long term development must not be decided by strength alone, but through co-operation.
“The existing international financial system and multilateral trading arrangements will not enable these imbalances to be redressed. They have not done so up to now and they are unlikely to do so in the future. Market forces and competitiveness are indispensable for economic development but the new millennium cannot be defined by the survival of the fittest. We must make it our business to assist the weak to become fit in order to not just survive but prosper,” Mr. Golding said.