– President outlines UNASUR priorities for next year
GUYANA’S focus as new chair of the Union of South American States (UNASUR) will include building a bigger and more integrated South American space, with stronger political ties and coordinated foreign policies taking common positions around the world on various issues.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, who assumed the chairmanship at the UNASUR summit hosted here last week, also said Guyana will emphasise creating more opportunities for goods and services and the flow of people across borders, and breaking down colonial and historical barriers among the 12 UNASUR members.
He said this will also include continuing economic growth and creating a regional economic framework that is guided by a model that is indigenous.
Additionally, he said, efforts will be made to ensure that the prosperity is used to better the lives of people through education, health, housing and other social development.
UNASUR should also be used in the upcoming period “to aggressively reform the United Nations, particularly the Security Council, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and to create a new financial global architecture that is sympathetic and that recognises our concerns,” President Jagdeo added.
He told a post-summit press conference that Guyana will continue along the same work path as its predecessor, Ecuador, while emphasising the importance of continuing the work already started, and seek to expand the body’s international reaches.
Mr. Jagdeo lauded Ecuador President, Rafael Correa, who shared the press conference, for his “extremely impressive” work, which has led to the advancement of the South American integration movement.
The summit was held at the Guyana International Convention Centre, at Liliendaal, in Greater Georgetown.
President Jagdeo said the appointment of a new UNASUR Secretary-General, following the death after a heart attack of former President Néstor Kirchner of Argentine a month ago, came up during the summit, and will be discussed further at the Ibero-American Summit in Mar Del Plata, Argentina.
At the summit opening, a minute’s silence was observed in memory of the late Secretary-General.
Kirchner’s widow and now President of Argentine, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, speaking during the summit opening, praised her husband’s will to walk down a path in the region from which she said there’s no turning back.
She said that reaffirming the organisation’s direction is the best way to honour his memory.
“His goal was achieving growth and tirelessly fighting inequality and social differences,” she added.
Before leaving Argentina for the Guyana summit, she announced that Argentina will reopen its embassy here, following its closure in 1991 for budgetary reasons.
At the opening of the summit, Mr. Jagdeo called for the continued creation of a better South America, noting that collective choices can aid such achievements.
At the top of his list of priorities is the question of whether UNASUR should create a South American democratic identity that is irremovable.
“If we want our citizens to feel a trans-continental bond, they need to be able to identify with our trans-continental institutions, and to believe that they have a stake in how those institutions are run…I believe that we should agree here today that we will do whatever is left to do to establish our UNASUR Parliament, so that by the time of the next summit, the Parliament is operational,” President Jagdeo said.
In the process of arriving at such a consensus, the Guyanese Head of State called for an uncompromising commitment to the implementation of the democratic protocol regardless of the norms of some countries to change their position on adherence to such norms.
The UNASUR Chairman also called for the body to explore the possibilities of catalysing greater economic prosperity for all countries and social progress for the citizens.
“When it comes to creating an economy that serves all our people, we in South America know from experience that if we are to safeguard our people’s welfare, we must build economic models that avoid destructive cycles where periods of prosperity are followed by significant loss of welfare,” he said.
He noted that South America is poised to be a world leader in economic opportunities, given its immense natural and energy resources that can fuel both the hemisphere and global industrialisation.
President Jagdeo said there is enough agricultural output to feed the world’s population, which is set to increase to around nine billion people by 2050, and will inevitably increase the demand for food, thereby creating particular opportunities for the countries of South America.
He noted, too, that Guyana and Brazil have strengthened physical linkages, as evidenced last year by the commissioning of the bridge across the border Takutu River, which has already brought immense benefits to the people of both sides.
He said that with the recent decision to elevate the UNASUR working group on Financial Integration to a Council on Economy and Finance, he will make it his duty to recommend that it focuses on a new economic framework to deepen the integration process.
“This can enable greater shared prosperity through the opportunities that are created from movement of people, goods and services. And it can make UNASUR a real force for good in creating wealth for our peoples”, he said.
He also implored the body to pay significant attention to workable solutions for solving modern crimes, such as narco-crimes, international terrorism, and global financial corruption, which are too immense for a single nation, however powerful, to solve on its own.