Chavez: UN US$100b fund to help poorer countries
PORT SPAIN
Trinidad & Tobago Express
Petroleumworldtt.com
04 10 09
Venezuela will table a proposal at next week's Fifth Summit of the Americas calling for the creation of a US$100 billion United Nations-managed fund to help poor countries cope with the fallout of the world financial crisis.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made the announcement following a Wednesday working meeting with China's President Hi Jintao. The Venezuelan leader was in China as part of a tour that also took him to Iran and Japan. He is scheduled to arrive in Havana, Cuba today for talks with President Raul Castro and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro regarding the upcoming Summit of the Americas and next week's Summit of Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).
Chavez said his proposal will call for 10 per cent of the US$1 trillion G-20 leaders recently pledged in loans and guarantees to poorer nations through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other multilateral institutions to be placed in a fund that would be managed by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.
The ECOSOC assists the UN General Assembly in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development.
The Venezuelan president argued that the decision by G-20 leaders to pump funds into the IMF and the World Bank means that poor countries would be left out "because those organisations are the main ones to blame for the current world crisis."
"The UN has a body called the Economic and Social Council, and those resources should be placed in the hands of people who have human sensitivity to attend to the poorest countries who are suffering the impact of the crisis and no one is talking about them," Chavez was quoted yesterday as saying by the Caracas-based state Bolivarian News Agency (ABN).
He pointed to Central American countries as an example where one of the strongest sources of income was remittances from Central American immigrants who reside in the United States, "but with the crisis, everything has collapsed."
On other related matters, Chavez said he expected the Summit would be a "positive" event and indicated that Venezuela will take part with the greatest willingness for its success.
"I believe that the presence of all of us, in this new political map of Latin America, is a guarantee for the success of the Summit. Now it is not only Chavez. There is a voice that has extended, the voice of the peoples of Latin America," said the Venezuelan president, according to ABN.
Chavez also said that with US President Barack Obama there are high expectations relations will improve not only with Venezuela but also with the rest of Latin America.
"When the United States and its might stop pushing conspiracies in countries of the region and the empire removes its claws from our America...that way we can have relations based on equality and in a context of respect," he added.
Referring to the absence of Cuba from the Summit, Chavez reiterated that such a situation must generate a question in each country attending the event: "Why Cuba is not in this summit if we all are brothers of Cuba?"
Story
by
Nigel Cumberbatch
from Trinidad & Tobago
Express
-ncumberbatch@trinidadexpress.com
Trinidad & Tobago Express
Friday, April 10th 2009
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