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Contact:
Rose Marie Harris
Friday, September 16, 2005 - Saint Lucia’s Minister for External Affairs,
International Trade and Civil Aviation Senator Honourable Petrus Compton has
called upon the countries of the United Nations to move beyond mere declarations
and resolutions and instead find the political will to act to solve the problems
of hunger and poverty facing millions of the world’s citizens.
The Minister made the call while addressing the high level Plenary Meeting of
the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday September 15, 2005.
The Minister observed that at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000,
Heads of State and Governments made a collective statement of hope for the
future of mankind in the form of eight Millennium Development Goals to be
achieved by the year 2015. However five years on, Saint Lucia remains concerned
that the development partnership to which developed and developing countries
committed themselves and upon which platform this hope was to be realised is
from becoming a reality.
Senator Compton told the assembly Saint Lucia remains concerned that fellow
members of the United nations found it necessary to engage in activities at the
World trade Organisation that deny the very weakest nations the opportunity for
production and trade of their most important exports commodities like bananas
and sugar.
Developed countries were called upon to honour their promise to increase the
levels of overseas development assistance which they agreed to in the Monterrey
Consensus of 2002. They were urged to take the steps to create a fair
environment for the facilitation, promotion and realisation of small states’
capacity for trade.
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