PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECRETARY-GENERAL, BARBADOS +10 CONFERENCE

Small island developing States urgently needed the concerted efforts of the international community to shield them from forces that were beyond their control, Anwarul Chowdhury, the Secretary-General of the Barbados +10 Conference on Small Islands, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today.

The upcoming international meeting for the 10-year review of the Barbados Programme of Action on small island developing States, convened by the General Assembly, would be held from 30 August to 3 September this year in Mauritius, he said.

The conference would be preceded by a major preparatory meeting -- an interregional meeting for the small island States -- scheduled to be held in Nassau, Bahamas, from 26 to 30 January, he continued.  The Mauritius conference would also have another three-day preparatory meeting in New York from 14 to 16 April.

Mr. Chowdhury said it was because of their special vulnerability that small island developing countries had been placed together with two other most vulnerable groups in his Office -- an office that looked into the special needs of such countries identified by the Millennium Declaration as needing the international community’s special attention.  The special needs of the small island States would be examined by the international community as a whole at that Barbados 10-year review conference to which all 191 Members States, observers, civil society, private sector representatives, and regional organizations would be invited.

Some of the major issues that concerned the “sea-locked” States were their remoteness and smallness, he said.  Most were tucked away in various corners of the world, far from the major trading and other centres of activity.  Because of their small size, it was extremely difficult for them to benefit from “economies of scale”.  Their small populations also made them more vulnerable, as did natural disasters.

The Bahamas meeting was expected to allow the small island States to prepare their strategy paper, he said.  Also invited to that meeting were other development partners, including donor countries, organizations and regional bodies.  All those actions were intended to start a dialogue very early in the process before the April preparatory meeting.  While small island States were wonderful and beautiful places generally associated with idyllic natural beauty, most people did not consider just how fragile their economies and ecosystems were.

He pointed out that the basic source of their economic development –- tourism –- suffered every time there was a cyclone or threat of terrorism, thus, making tourism difficult and undependable for their economic activity.  For that reason, many had tried to focus on “eco-tourism”, trying to benefit from the environmental beauty of their countries.  Further, trade had posed a major challenge to them, as their smallness and remoteness hindered the competitiveness of their products in international markets.

Small island States would continue to push for special attention to the issue of trade at the resumption of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations expected to be held in Geneva, he said.  The availability of fresh water was another major concern, as small island States were surrounded by saline sea.  Another serious was HIV/AIDS, as the pandemic was posing a major threat, especially in the Caribbean and Pacific islands.

He stressed the importance of regional integration either for official development assistance (ODA) or for investment, as well as for development programmes.  The message those States were getting was that they needed to come together, as they were too small to be considered alone.  That would be helpful for donors developing programmes.

To a correspondent’s question, he said that tourism had both positive and negative aspects and cited the example of “sex” tourism that had been widely reported in recent years.  But that phenomenon was not confined to small island States.

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