The president spoke on Thursday on the opening day of the event in his capacity as president of the Group of 77 plus China to address the impact of the current financial architecture and the urgency of transforming it.

“I am not revealing any secrets if I affirm that the most direct consequences of the current deeply unfair, undemocratic, speculative and exclusive international economic and financial order, gravitate more strongly on developing nations,” he said.

Díaz-Canel called for a reconsideration of the current bases that define North-South relations and coexistence on the planet and urged leaders not to go down in history as those who could not make a difference in common destiny.

He also warned about the direct consequences for the South resulting from the prevailing order, in particular the obstacle it represents for the materialization of Sustainable Development Goals.

“Under such unfavorable conditions, the South cannot generate and access the $4.3 trillion a year it needs to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in the remaining decade of action,” he stressed.

The Cuban president called for changing the situation suffered by many countries: “Our peoples cannot and must not continue to be laboratories of colonial recipes and renewed forms of domination that use debt, the current international financial architecture and unilateral coercive measures, to perpetuate the underdevelopment and increase the wealth of a few at the expense of the South”, he declared.

Among the concrete proposals, the dignitary mentioned the reform of international financial institutions, both in matters of governance and representation and access to financing, which take into account the legitimate interests of developing countries. He also called for a prompt and significant recapitalization of the multilateral development banks and for actions on market access, capacity building and technology transfer.

jrr/llp/jha/wmr