Antigua & Barbuda attend SIDS conference

Antigua & Barbuda attend SIDS conference
 
Monday October 06 2003
 
 

Antigua & Barbuda is being represented at the Ministry of Tourism and 
Environment at the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) conference in 
Trinidad, which begins today.

Attending are Senior Environmental Officer Daryll Matthew and Environmental 
Officer Shaka Francis.

Both representatives will join their Caribbean counterparts in assessing 
sustainable development in the region as they prepare for a meeting in 2004.

Chief environment Officer Dianne Black-Layne revealed that they also have the 
copy of a draft report on the environmental related activities, which took 
place in Antigua & Barbuda over the past 10 years. 

SIDS represents over 40 small nations of the world in similar size and 
capital. And most are facing the same challenges, as was brought out at the 
United Nations General Assembly, during which the representatives of most 
small territories rang a similar note in their speeches.

It was a recurring theme that most small countries, no less those of the 
Caribbean, face an increasingly competitive global arena, which offers very 
little protection to small economies.

"We are trying to build up the strength and negotiation positions of 
small-island developing states. What we are seeking are special concessions 
for loans and these will be independent of the per capita income measure, 
which is not a true reflection of how the country is actually doing," 
Black-Layne said.

She added that the country's participation in the SIDS conference is an 
opportunity for the SIDS group to see how Antigua & Barbuda is doing in 
maintaining the principles of sustainable development.

Matthew and Francis will join discussions in 15 priority areas for the 
Caribbean region. Among them are coastal and marine resources, natural and 
environmental disasters, land resources, waste management and trade.

More than 150 representatives of Caribbean nations, regional and 
international agencies and private and civil society sectors will look at 
ways of strengthening sustainable development in their region in preparation 
for the international conference in Mauritius. 

The Trinidad conference is the last of the three regional meetings in 
preparation for the Mauritius meeting. It is being co-ordinated by the UN 
department for economic and social affairs, the UN economic commission for 
Latin America and the Caribbean, the UN environment programme and the UN 
development programme in collaboration with Caricom.
 

SOURCE: Antigua Sun