Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley also urged for clamping down on technological gaps that prevent poor nations from accessing resources necessary for the well-being and progress of their peoples.
“Most of the world’s population is waking up to reality that our future cannot remain in the shadow of an order that the last-century multilateral institutions vowed as a past feature and not as the ruin of our modern existence,” Mottley added.
PM Mottley also regretted that what has been seen over the years really reinforces the strengthening of power and wealth in the hands of a few, and how that such concentration is likely to be further exaggerated by the continued privatization of knowledge.
“As unfair as that scenario is, it is further reflected in the absence of a just industrial strategy for the Global South. It is reflected in the apartheid of vaccines, despite clear moral imperative that exists for all of us as human beings to save as many lives as possible, especially in times of danger,” she condemned.
Mottley pointed out the world is presently experiencing an unprecedented crisis just when humanity has great scientific progress at its disposal, and noted how commitments to protect the whole planet become empty promises whether the less industrialized countries do not have the means to put them into practice or lack access to monetary resources.
“The absence of political space to allow us to pursue progress as expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), unequal access to financing, whether from international institutions or private capital markets, which continue to charge a premium to those who borrow in the South, hamper our capacity to provide opportunities for our people to own and control technology,” she stressed.
According to her, Cuba has been beacon for the global South thanks to its scientific and technological breakthroughs, despite a hostile and unjust blockade and terrorism faced for over 60 years.
The G77+China Summit is being held from Friday to Saturday at the Havana International Conference Center (HICC) under the issue: “The current challenges of development: the role of science, technology and innovation”.
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