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STORY: ANTIGUA / SIDS4 RESOURCE MOBILIZATION
TRT: 03:21
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 28 MAY 2024, ST JOHN, ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
1. Various shots, participants arriving, American University of Antigua
2. Wide shot, room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Financing is the fuel of development. But many Small Island Developing States are running on empty. Suffering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which accelerated inflation and increased interest rates. Battered by a climate catastrophe they did not create.”
4. Wide shot, podium
5. SOUNDBITE (English): Jutta Urpilainen, Commissioner for International Partnerships, European Commission:
“Through its Global Gateway investments strategy, Team Europe – so the EU Member States and the European institutions – aims at mobilizing 300 billion Euros in public and private investments by 2027. Many of those initiatives are underway in SIDS.”
6. Wide shot, panelists sitting
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Mia Mottley, Prime Minister, Barbados:
“We need longer term money. We need cheaper money. We need a different framework for debt sustainability and with all due respect the current framework is not working.”
8. Med shot, delegate from Cuba speaking
9. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“When we see these challenges, they are moving with the speed of a Formula One car. And when we see the improvements in the actions to face these challenges, they remind me of the speed of a Trabant that was a car that I see in the seventies in East Germany.”
10. Med shot, Earle Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet of the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, moderator
11. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“So, let’s make SIDS a real priority in everything we do in the institutions. And let’s address the structural problems that are creating difficulties in doing what needs to be done for SIDS to have effective, effective support from the international community that they deserve, and they need.”
12. Med shot, Li Junhua, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs thanking panelists
13. Various shots, participants at American University of Antigua
In Antigua, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that international financing is the fuel for sustainable development, but many Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are “running on empty.”
Guterres convened today (28 May) a high-level meeting with international financial institutions, development banks, and major donors with a view to ensuring the full mobilization of resources for SIDS, in accordance with General Assembly resolutions 77/245 and 78/232.
The meeting took in the margins of the Fourth International Conference on SIDS (SIDS4) at the American University of Antigua.
Guterres said, “Financing is the fuel of development. But many Small Island Developing States are running on empty. Suffering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which accelerated inflation and increased interest rates. Battered by a climate catastrophe they did not create.”
Guterres said, “When we see these challenges, they are moving with the speed of a Formula One car. And when we see the improvements in the actions to face these challenges, they remind me of the speed of a Trabant that was a car that I see in the seventies in East Germany.”
He concluded, “So, let’s make SIDS a real priority in everything we do in the institutions. And let’s address the structural problems that are creating difficulties in doing what needs to be done for SIDS to have effective, effective support from the international community that they deserve, and they need.”
Also addressing the meeting, Jutta Urpilainen, European Commission Commissioner for International Partnerships, said, “Through its Global Gateway investments strategy, Team Europe – so the EU Member States and the European institutions – aims at mobilizing 300 billion Euros in public and private investments by 2027. Many of those initiatives are underway in SIDS.”
Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, said, “We need longer-term money. We need cheaper money. We need a different framework for debt sustainability and with all due respect the current framework is not working.”
