Cape Verde’s Finance minister revealed on Sunday, October 15, that Cape Verde has been elected president of the Forum of Small Island States for the next two years, and promised to give priority to advocating for more concessional financing.
“Small Island States have particularities that must be taken into account, especially with regard to access to concessional financing,” said Cape Verde’s Deputy Prime Minister, Olavo Correia, in an interview given on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which end Sunday October 15 in Marrakech.
“For Cape Verde, being president of the Forum is a privilege because it gives us the space to raise our profile as a country, to defend joint issues such as access to concessional financing because small states are the most impacted, they are the ones that will later come out of recession, they are the most vulnerable to climate change and they are not net contributors, but they end up paying the bill for the changes,” said the minister.
The forum, which Cape Verde will chair for the next two years, represents more than 50 small developing States that are also archipelagos, and is “an opportunity to have a single voice at the IMF, the World Bank, the United Nations, and on all global stages”, said Olavo Correia, stressing that the presidency also brings added responsibility.