PM Concerned about Inequities of Globalisation

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister, the Hon. Bruce Golding, is again raising concern about the effects of globalisation in widening the gap between rich and poor countries.

He said that if left unchecked, the phenomenon could result in a “revised delineation of the world” where some countries will be developed, while the majority remains confined to struggle with poverty and underdevelopment.

The Prime Minister, who was delivering a lecture at the prestigious Brookings Institution in Washington DC on Tuesday June 7, said the current global crisis provides an opportunity to address the issue.

“It is a chance to seek to focus and to change that imbalance. It’s a small window of opportunity because so many of the developed countries are pre-occupied with economic challenges and it is an opportunity that will disappear once the global economy returns to some semblance of stability, even if that stability is only for a time” he stated.

Mr. Golding expressed the hope that this issue of globalisation would become one of the successes of the Brookings Institution.  

He noted that the organisation, which conducts research and education in the social sciences “has a remarkable track record in stimulating discussions even when they appear to be swimming against the tides”.

Some of these discussions, he said, have led to critical policy initiatives that have changed the way that powerful decision makers think and make decisions.

Prime Minister Golding, who is in Washington for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) International Forum on Caribbean Investment and Development (IFCID), has so far held bi-lateral talks with the United States (US) Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton; President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick; Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Naoyuki Shinonara; and has attended an investment luncheon with high-level investors from the US.

He is scheduled to meet with the President of the IDB, Luis Moreno and officially launch the IDB Caribbean American Art Exhibition, where some six Jamaican artists will showcase their work.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister will be recognised on the floor of the US Senate and later that afternoon, he will deliver the keynote address at the IDB’s International Forum on Caribbean Investment and Development at the IDB headquarters.

The Prime Minister and his delegation will return to the island on Friday (June 10).