In the context of the world and regional propagation of COVID-19, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro opened on Wednesday, June 10, the High-Level Conference: Post-pandemic Economy in ALBA-TCP to determine the economic weakness and strength of member countries after the sanitary crisis caused by coronavirus.
The heads of State and Government of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America- People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) expect to lay the foundations for a plan to alleviate the economic and social effects of the pandemic.
According to preliminary studies conducted by the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), the impact of the post-pandemic crisis on the main commercial partners in Latin America and the Caribbean will cause a regional GDP drop of around 1.8%.
In his opening speech, the Venezuelan president highlighted the ALBA-TCP joint response to address the COVID-19 sanitary crisis and guarantee the protection of the region’s people.
“Besides the impact on the health of our people, besides this battle we are fighting for the health of our people with very important results (…) there has also been both circumstantial short-term and structural effects on the economy,” said the Venezuelan president.
In these circumstances, he stressed the need of a new economy based on solidarity, cooperation and interdependence. “An economy that respects life, the conditions and traditions of our peoples. A new economy, a new society.”
President Maduro recalled that the ALBA-TCP was created as an alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas proposed by the U.S. government, and became a humanist, democratic alliance; therefore, “it has to be at the forefront of the battle of ideas, of concrete proposals and the construction of a new world.”
Also, he mentioned the strong demonstrations taking place in the United States to reject the murder of African American George Floyd, racial discrimination and police brutality.
President Maduro asserted that the protests and struggle, which have become a world cause, are the first political expression of the post-pandemic world, “of the changes the world will undergo in the coming months. Big changes in the world are coming.”
The High-Level Conference: Post-pandemic Economy in ALBA-TCP was proposed by President Nicolás Maduro on May 27 in order to lay down the criteria of a real post COVID-19 economy in the region.
The Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty is comprised of Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Dominica, Granada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela.
Since its foundation, this regional integration bloc has fostered solidarity, interdependence, justice and cooperation to produce the structural transformations and a system of relations necessary to achieve comprehensive development.