Georgetown, Guyana-Argentina is offering the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) a platform to engage the global community when it hosts the “Second United Nations High Level Conference on South-South Cooperation, PABA 40” in March next year.

It has proposed, as a side-event, a conference with the invited countries and organizations, which are expected to include some of the major economies of the world, agencies of the United Nations, other international organizations, and NGO’s. CARICOM will also be invited to mount a stand in a South-South Cooperation Exhibition.

Argentina’s new Ambassador to CARICOM HE Filipe Alejandro Gardella restated the offer during presentation of his Letters of Credence to CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque at the Headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana, Wednesday.

Ambassador Gardella and  Secretary-General LaRocque both also signal their commitment to  activating the already approved “CARICOM-Argentina Standing Joint Commission on Consultation, Cooperation and Coordination”, to advance cooperation in economic, scientific, technical and cultural areas.

Attention for climate change

Ambassador LaRocque requested Argentina’s support for CARICOM’s call on the international financial community to review its criteria for access to concessional financing to take into account the economic and environmental vulnerabilities of Small Island and Low-Lying Developing States (SIDS), particularly in the context of climate change and natural disasters.  Using the criteria of per-capita income denies several CARICOM Member States access to the concessional financing they need to build resilience prior to the occurrence of a natural disaster, the Secretary-General stated.