UN General Assembly
2000

look to the United Nations to call upon the WTO to take into consideration the special structural problems faced by the small banana producers of the Caribbean. 2 We call for corporate responsibility. We appeal for measures to encourage the sustainability of small economies and economies in transition. We urge a more equitable global partnership. You may recall that the Heads of State and Government, including the Prime Minister of Grenada, stressed recently in this very hall the urgency of releasing poor developing countries from their debt burden. The leaders expressed an interest in finding new approaches and new thinking with respect to this problem. A solution should be vigorously pursued with deliberate speed. Debt forgiveness is not a financial loss to the global economy. Rather, it provides an opportunity for stimulation in the depressed and stagnant parts of the world's economy. Investing the dividends realized by debt forgiveness in the economy of the debtor developing countries — especially the least developed and those with economies in transition — would be a major investment in global development.