President Fernández Presents his Rescue Plan for Global Financial Crisis

Speaking at the 63rd Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, Dominican President Leonel Fernández proposed his ideas for the creation of a rescue plan that would enable poor countries to achieve their goals stated in the Millennium Development Objectives. He called on the international community to help put this plan into effect.

President Fernández based his proposal on the widely shared understanding that developing countries are facing a discouraging situation and that the international state of affairs is plagued with obstacles…

President Fernández based his proposal on the widely shared understanding that developing countries are facing a discouraging situation and that the international state of affairs is plagued with obstacles that impede them from fulfilling their stated objectives, according to a press statement from the President’s Office of Information, Press and Publicity.

He noted that the rich countries of the world have fallen short of fulfilling their commitments of official support and help that would facilitate the attainment of the objectives put forward in the Assembly of the year 2000. President Fernández said that only Norway, Sweden, Holland, Denmark and Luxembourg have honored their commitment to donate 0.7 percent of their Gross National Product to developing countries, as was established and agreed upon in 2000. Nevertheless, despite the obstacles, the Dominican Republic has made some advances toward fulfilling its Millennium Objectives.

A significant achievement is that it has been able to reduce by half the number of 5-year-old children who are underweight. At the same time, the Dominican Head of State added that his country has also made significant progress in the area of health care and has taken important steps in controlling the spread of HIV-AIDS.

He did, however, recognize the Dominican Republic like many developing nations, still has a problem with female mortality when giving birth and that each year more than a half-million women die from complications provoked by childbirth. In 2006, nearly 3 million people died as the result of AIDS. “Another discouraging perspective is the more than 600 million people [worldwide] will not have access to the health services that they now possess,” lamented the Dominican President as he spoke to leaders from the United Nations member states.

He stressed that the 189 nations that committed to the Millennium Objectives in 2000 did not do so in a vague way nor did they sign on to support abstract concepts, rather they adopted the Objectives with a supreme sense of responsibility.