4, April 2023
Global Economy Trends in Nearshoring and Green Industry Can Help Boost Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean 0
Latin America and the Caribbean economies have proven relatively resilient in the wake of increasing debt stress, inflation and rising global uncertainty. But new headwinds in the form of lower commodity prices, higher interest rates in developed countries and China’s unsteady recovery could potentially turn the region’s prospects bleak.
In order to boost much needed growth, countries should preserve their hard-won resilience and seize the unique opportunities global economy trends offer in nearshoring – moving production closer to home markets, and the green industry, according to a new World Bank report, “The Promise of Integration, Opportunities in a Changing Global Economy”.
The report estimates regional GDP will grow by 1.4 percent in 2023, a lower-than-expected rate. Rates of 2.4 percent are expected for 2024 and 2025, too low to make significant progress in poverty reduction.
“The region has largely recovered from the pandemic crisis but unfortunately is back to the low growth levels of the previous decade,” said Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Countries need to urgently accelerate inclusive growth, so that everyone benefits from development, and this will require maintaining macroeconomic stability and taking advantage of the opportunities trade integration offers today.”
After recovering from the pandemic, the region has managed with relative success the multiple crises caused by the Russian war in Ukraine and the uncertainties surrounding the global economy. Both poverty and employment are mostly back to pre-pandemic levels, while average inflation, excluding Argentina, is expected to decline to 5.0 percent in 2023 after reaching 7.9 percent in 2022.
According to the report, the region´s overall resilience is the result of hard-won progress in macroeconomic management over the past two decades. Preserving this progress will be paramount.
However, on average, fiscal imbalances remain high, expected at 2.7 percent of GDP in 2023, further eroding already tight fiscal space, and debt levels are estimated to reach 64.7 percent of GDP this year, slightly down from 66.3 percent in 2022. Furthermore, the recent bank failures in the US and Europe introduce additional uncertainty. Its resonance in LAC´s banking system and capital flows remains to be seen.
“The LAC region remains one of the least integrated, while trade openness and FDI flows have mostly been stagnant or decreasing over the past 20 years; countries should find ways to gain attractiveness and take advantage of the nearshoring trends,” said William Maloney, chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank. “In addition, leveraging the region’s extraordinary comparative advantage in sustainable energy production, commodities necessary for emerging green industries, and the region’s unique natural capital offers a new potential source of growth, but will require policies to facilitate access to global markets, capital, and technology.”
The report suggests a series of integration advancing policies countries should consider to seize these opportunities. This includes long term policies such as reducing systemic risks, boosting traditional and digital infrastructure investments, and improving human capital, as well as short-term options such as preserving macro stability, promoting customs and transport regulatory advances, and improving export and investment promotion agencies.
5, April 2023
Southern Cameroonians to pay final respects to loved ones who died at sea!! Yaoundé won’t talk 0
Preparations are underway in Cameroon for family members and friends to pay their final respects for some of the African migrants believed to have died in the March 28 boat tragedy.
The family of Mofor Verdo, Observer can confirm, has made arrangements in his homeland to celebrate his life.
His brother Fedelis told our newsroom yesterday that the family had been able to confirm from a survivor of the incident that Verdo was one of those killed.
Verdo was one of 30 Cameroonians who lost his life when La Belle Michelle capsized near the coast of St Kitts and Nevis, after the overcrowded fishing vessel ran into difficulty.
Verdo’s wife, according to his brother, has taken ill since hearing the news.
When Verdo left Cameroon in November, he had promised his wife that once he arrived in the US, where he had intended to end up, life would be better.
Hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians have fled violence in the Central African nation, where Anglophone separatists and government forces have been fighting each other for six years.
Several other distraught relatives are still waiting to confirm the status of loved ones believed to have been on the boat which was heading from Antigua to the US Virgin Islands.
“They are supposed to be sending the list out of both dead and alive. It is not right that we are kept in such suspense. They treat Cameroonians like dogs, locked in a cage without a name. Even dogs have names. This is painful and hurtful,” one Cameroonian here in Antigua told Observer.
Those who arrived in Antigua on charter flights from Nigeria last November and December were promised they would be transported to South America or the United States.
Instead, they were left stranded.
Meanwhile, 16 survivors who include two Antiguans remain in St Kitts and Nevis at a community centre while arrangements are made to return them to Antigua and Barbuda.
The government has been in dialogue with authorities in St Kitts to determine whether they will be transported by sea or air.
Observer can also confirm that no charges have been laid against against those suspected of organising the doomed voyage, St Kitts police confirmed to Observer. However, investigations into the incident continue in Antigua and Barbuda, along with Guadeloupe where La Belle Michelle was registered.
One of the two Antiguans on board has been released to relatives in St Kitts, according to sources.
It’s now been a week since the search for survivors was called off. And while law enforcement officials search for answers, questions linger over what international implications this matter could have on Antigua and Barbuda.
Akaash Maharaj, ambassador-at-large and former CEO of the Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC), weighed in on that discussion earlier this week.
He said while he has not yet had dialogue with other territories, those who offer visa-free travel for Antiguans and Barbudans are likely considering tightening up travel restrictions as the country could now be seen as a nation linked to illegal migration.
“Now we see a situation where not only has there been a human trafficking situation based out of Antigua and Barbuda but there’s a reason for apprehension. That is one that happened with the knowledge and with the financing of the government.
“The question that the government should be asking themselves and other states would be asking themselves regarding what was a catastrophic error by the government of Antigua and Barbuda is, is it quite likely to repeat itself or is this potentially part of a pattern that they can expect to see happening in the future.
“That is another reason why it is so important that there is a full independent inquiry into these events,” Maharaj said.
Maharaj went on to share suggestions on how the government could help to clean up the country’s image.
“The best way the government of Antigua and Barbuda can reassure the international community that these events will not be repeated and that they need not fear that this is the first in a line of human smuggling activities is for the people within the country who are responsible for complicity to be brought to justice.
“If the international community sees any political actors’ fingerprints who were on this human smuggling operation have been struck from power, have been convicted after an independent, fair and impartial process, and have paid a price before the law enforcement system, then they will feel reassured that this is not going to reoccur, but if the government evades accountability for those who are guilty, inevitably foreign states will ask themselves, well if they got away with it this time, are they not likely to try it again,” he explained.
It is believed that about 30 migrants were smuggled out of Antigua and Barbuda aboard La Belle Michelle.
The 14 migrants who were rescued along with two Antiguans were revealed to have arrived in Antigua and Barbuda between November and December aboard charter flights from Nigeria.
Maharaj referred to last week’s ordeal as a “great tragedy” and a matter that did not need to snowball into such a fiasco.
He said government must take responsibility for it despite claims by government ministers, including Prime Minister Gaston Browne, that they were misled.
He added that the fact that the airline was part-owned by government already implicates them as “they were more than happy to take credit when it was first touted as a great tourist pool for the country”.
Source: Antigua Observer