Johnson Smith highlights need for financing initiatives to address region’s sustainable development
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, has highlighted the correlation between access to financing for development and the effectiveness of regional countries in mitigating the impact of climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, negotiating alternative energy transitions, and addressing food security.
The Minister was speaking at the meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the Central American Integration System (SICA) in Panama City on Tuesday, May 3, as the two sub-regions seek to strengthen alliances, with a view to developing a coordinated and strategic response to issues of common interests to both regions.
On the specific matter of energy security, Johnson Smith stated that, “Ensuring affordable energy transition is critical and a matter which has become even more relevant as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. From both a market and climate perspective, dependence on fossil fuels is problematic, thus the importance now, for the region to cooperate on obtaining unprecedented levels of investment in energy transition.”
“Since government resources are limited, countries like ours need to do more to attract private sector funding, so that government funding could be better utilised to leverage and de-risk projects, allowing us to achieve our development goals,” the Minister added.
The meeting, a three-tiered engagement between Caricom-European Union (EU), SICA-Caricom-EU, and SICA-Caricom, included a meeting with H E Josep Borrell, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, who called on regional countries “to be more united than ever before”.
Hosted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama, HE Erika Mouynes, the Caricom-SICA meeting was a follow-up to the Fourth Caricom -SICA Summit, which was held in March, 2022, in San Pedro, Belize. Caricom countries attending the meeting were: Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, alongside Caricom Secretary-General, Dr Carla Barnett. SICA member states in attendance were Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama.
