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  • 2 years ago
Former Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Dookeran launches yet another book. 'Resetting Caribbean Policy Analysis in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic' interweaves economics, politics and diplomacy.
Transcript
00:00 Mr. Dugrand, to me you sit amongst a very few leaders in Trinidad and Tobago, in the
00:05 region, who understand that politics, economics, diplomacy is not just about
00:17 the office that you hold, but it is about harnessing our collective intellectual
00:22 capacity to continually be searching for solutions to address the challenges that
00:28 we face. Economist Indira Sajjawan at the launch of the book Development and
00:34 Policy Resetting Caribbean Policy Analysis in the aftermath of the COVID-19
00:40 pandemic. She delivers a presentation on a new paradigm and provides more details
00:47 on the effect of the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. 119 to 124 million
00:54 people were pushed back into extreme poverty in 2020. A potential
01:00 generational catastrophe regarding schooling, where an additional 101
01:05 million children have fallen below the minimum reading proficiency level,
01:09 potentially wiping out two decades of education gains. Women are facing
01:15 increased domestic violence, child marriage is projected to rise. The
01:20 Caribbean, she explains, has its own inherent complications. High unemployment,
01:26 especially amongst youth and women. High propensity to import, especially food and
01:31 energy. Monocrop production structures, decline in agriculture, vulnerability to
01:36 natural disasters and climate change. One-sided trade flows, corruption, crime.
01:42 The book, edited by former Central Bank Governor Winston Dugrand and Raymond
01:48 Isorali, pulls together intriguing chapters written by regional and
01:53 international scholars, including Dr. Valmiki Arjun. He says the book is being
01:59 launched at a crucial time. It is a valuable tool for policymakers in
02:03 restructuring their economic strategies, aiming to reduce our reliance on the
02:08 international market and lower our vulnerabilities to global economic
02:14 shocks. Now one way to achieve this is for lack economies to strive for better
02:20 economic complexity. Professor Dugrand, Secretary-General of the UCLAD
02:25 University, agrees. As we confronted in real life sense that need to respond to
02:38 an unknown pandemic, at least at the time, it became very clear that the political
02:48 paralysis that has descended in the Caribbean had nothing to do with the
02:55 richness of its literature, or even less to do with the rhetoric of its leaders,
03:05 but much more to do with the ability to understand how to walk through that path.
03:14 An overview, says the book, spans issues like the challenges facing small island
03:21 states, the adequacy of orthodox growth models, regional advances in policy
03:27 structures, liberalism, investment and capital flows, and health diplomacy, to
03:32 name a few. And it encapsulates a multidisciplinary approach. Dr. Arjun
03:38 says lowering corruption is a game-changer. Lower levels of corruption
03:43 lead to more efficient state expenditure, where government officials are likely to
03:47 invest in new and productive sectors that will foster greater export
03:53 complexity, rather than what many have been doing for several decades, which is
03:58 diverting scarce financial resources to sectors or projects in which government
04:03 agents can illicitly profit. The professor calls it a book on predictive
04:08 analysis. I know that this new book that we have put together is about the future.
04:15 I don't know how it is going to change or shape or even influence that future.
04:24 The book interlaces the disciplines of economics, politics and diplomacy. It is
04:31 really about institutional change, limitations in the present, the endemic
04:41 inertia that exists today, and the false promises built on unstable premises.
04:53 The book is about linking the logic of economics with the logic of politics.
05:04 Dukkaran was professor of practice at the University of the West Indies and
05:08 visiting professor at the University of Toronto, Canada. The book was launched on
05:14 Tuesday at the Central Bank Auditorium and is available online and from the
05:19 Metropolitan Bookstore, Paper Based and Nigel R. Canne Booksellers.
05:24 Urvashi Tewari, Rupnirajan, TV6 News.
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