St Kitts-Nevis PM Harris calls for ‘inclusive development’ in region

Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis  Dr. Timothy Harris called for ensuring “development that is inclusive” so that “our young and vulnerable populations can feel that they are part of progress and development in the region.”

During the annual meeting of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Harris said the bank should help in “bringing more people into the mainstream” and provide additional opportunities “so they could find their own pathways for development.”

Harris also said he looked forward to the CDB providing further assistance in reducing poverty in the region and urged for there to be “the delineation of the appropriate transformational strategies” to confront this issue.

Harris also voiced concern about borrowing member countries who have grown their economies and “are not eligible for preferential borrowing rates that lower income economies can access.”

Harris proposed a “fairer” system of assessing countries, which takes their vulnerability to shocks such as natural disasters into account. He suggested there be ‘new models and instruments” to help countries better prepare for natural disasters.

He said he looked forward to the CDB providing further assistance in reducing poverty in the region and urged for there to be “the delineation of the appropriate transformational strategies” to confront this issue.

Harris also called on a unified approach to food production, as the cost of foreign exchange to the region’s economies due to importing food was a “significant one”.