CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Statement by Lina Pedraza, Minister of Finance and Prices of the Republic of Cuba, at the Round Table 1 of the United Nations Conference at the Highest Level on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impacts on Development

AGENDA ITEM: The role of the United Nations and its Member States in the ongoing international discussions on reforming and strengthening the international financial and economic system and architecture.

 

Mr. President,

The international financial system is in crisis. This is the logical consequence of the deep systemic and structural imbalances of an order based on the market blind forces, which led the financial speculation to unimaginable limits in pursuit of the highest possible profit.

The financial disaster was the most alarming manifestation of the economic crisis and the ongoing depression. We are facing a phenomenon that, due to its magnitude, is qualitatively different and so it requires different solutions.

The current global economic crisis is also a irrefutable proof of the failure of the neoliberal economic doctrine and the myth of the kindness of the market deregulation and the solid and reliable character of the present international financial institutions, which were safe instruments in imposing an economic policy, the negative impact of which are felt today worldwide, especially in developing nations.

The fundamental solutions required in the current situation cannot be taken only by the richest countries, even if they are directly responsible of the crisis, or in meetings of limited participation, as proved by the outcomes of the most recent Summit of the G-20. In this meeting, there were no discussions on the main factors giving rise to the crisis or the need for a radical transformation of the international financial architecture.

The pale statements voiced in relation to the reform of the financial institutions are only aimed at underpinning a system enabling major developed countries to maintain the power, prerogatives and benefits they have enjoyed so far.

As Cuba has expressed at the plenary discussion of this Conference, the international financial system must be refounded from its very foundations. Its flows not only lie in the deregulation. The current system is antidemocratic and its norms and principles were established according to the interests of a few industrialized powers.

We call for the urgent commencement of a fully comprehensive and inclusive international dialogue, having the active participation of all UN Member States. There is no forum or international body better equipped that this Organization and its General Assembly to lead that process.

The reform of the international financial system must be based on a new socio-economic paradigm having the human being as a center of concern. Its objective must be to improve the functioning of the global economic system for the global good of humankind.

Thank you. (Cubaminrex- Embacuba ONU)

<< Back