Barbados continues to take steps towards reforming the global financial system through The Bridgetown Agenda.
This came to the fore on Wednesday as Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley met with global leaders and also joined with Finance Ministers from across the world for the first in person Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Washington DC.
Along with a Barbados delegation, which included Barbados Ambassador to the United States Noel Lynch, Director of Finance and Economic Affairs Ian Carrington and Senior Economic Advisor to the Barbados Government, Dr Kevin Greenidge, Prime Minister Mottley met with the United Kingdom’s Minister of State for Development, Victoria Ford and President for COP 26, Alok Sharma to discuss some of the goals and objectives of The Bridgetown Agenda.
Mottley also attended the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting, which took place at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Headquarters in Washington, during the annual IMF/World Bank Annual meetings.
This meeting, which featured representatives from the 56 Commonwealth countries, focused on highlighting and addressing emerging economic issues in Commonwealth countries under the theme, ‘A Road to Economic Recovery: A Macroeconomic Perspective’.
The Prime Minister explained these meetings came at a critical time for the world as it faces a multiplicity of issues including the current climate crisis, a cost of living crisis coming out of the Pandemic and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and a looming developing country debt crisis.
The Bridgetown Agenda comes as a response to those crises, outlining the path to urgent and decisive action and the reformation of the financial system to create one that is fit for purpose by providing emergency liquidity, expanding multilateral lending to Governments and creating new multilateral mechanisms to trigger private sector savings for climate mitigation and fund reconstruction after a climate disaster.
Over the next few days, Prime Minister Mottley will continue to meet and engage world leaders and stakeholders on The Bridgetown Agenda. (PR/SAT)
