Dr Ralph Gonsalves

St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica do not have international airports, which hinders their tourism economies. Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, made this statement during his feature address on which was delivered at the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Forum (UNESCO) with special emphasis on the Caribbean, at Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s, on Thursday. “Only two Caribbean countries emerged from colonialism and the Cold War without an international airport in place.

It is no surprise both countries lag behind many other Caribbean states in tourist arrivals, private sector investment in tourism and tourism-based economies,” Gonsalves said. “Indeed, it is fair to say, after the deepening and strengthening of our far-reaching educational reforms, an international airport is currently the single most important development project in the country,” he said. He said the airport project cannot be placed in the “capacity building” column. “It is a poor fit for the diversification category. It cannot be counted as a basic human needs project. A key component of our national development is ignored by well-meaning, but bureaucratically rigid cooperation schemes.”

Donor fatigue
“The Caribbean is a victim of its own success. We are democratic states, free of the sort of political and civil unrest that is common in other developing nations. We are well governed and transparent. The World Bank classifies most our states as “middle-income” and some as ‘high-income.” “We are better of than many other countries and regions in the developing world,” he said. “Our relative success and small populations have conspired to make us less attractive to many international development agencies and partners, and somehow less deserving of their developmental co-operation,” said Gonsalves. “Ours are not the headline-grabbing developmental challenges of war and famine,” he said.

He said the co-operation, when it is eventually filtered down to the Caribbean, is often poorly targeted and badly tailored to national needs and priorities. “Donor fatigue” has sent in, Gonsalves said. “The Caribbean has grown increasingly tired of waiting for the 0.7 per cent of GNI (gross national income) promised by the developing world at Monterrey, Mexico, in 2002.” He also spoke about the billions pledged to Africa, the US$10 billion pledged to climate change adaptation and the US$1.1 trillion promised by the G20 in 2009. Gonsalves said it was puzzling how developed nations could suffer from “donor fatigue” when they have yet to donate what was originally pledged.