CMC– Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne has called on African and Caribbean countries to rethink their economic policies so as to make them more beneficial to their populations.
Browne made the call while welcoming a delegation from the Regent of Abagana Kingdom located in Anambra State, Nigeria. The delegation is headed by Dr. Nwachukwu Anakwenze, who will soon be installed as King of Abagana Kingdom.
“We have not reached our full potential because of the plundering that took place in Africa and here in the Caribbean where most economies were turned into ‘extractive’ economies with the wealth of the lands …created generational wealth in Europe and elsewhere while at the same time creating poverty in both regions,” Browne said.
He told the delegation that he wants to see ‘a deliberate effort’ by African and Caribbean countries to change their economic systems to ensure that they operate to the benefit of the peoples of Africa and the Caribbean.
He recalled the situation a few years ago when two major Canadian banks decided to move out of the region and to sell their local branches external to Antigua and Barbuda.
But he said that it was his administration that stepped in and told the bank owners that they must sell locally.
“I said to them this is our time to own these branches so that the profits that they generate would remain in the lo cal economy to fund the development here in Antigua and Barbuda. It was not a ‘sexy’ idea and I was threatened and called names including ‘Dictator’, but I held firm noting that as Finance Minister the law required that I should sign the Vesting Order and I told them under no circumstances would I sign those orders,” he said.
Browne said that the branches of the banks were eventually sold to two local banks which are now bigger and more profitable with their profits being retained in the local economy.
“This is the time of bold leadership that is required because the banks and other special interests are not going to give up easily; we have to be prepared to be resolute in our decision-making,” he added.
Prime Minister Browne said that when the European powers enslaved African peoples in the Caribbean and destabilized the economies of Africa and through slavery and colonialism kept the peoples impoverished.
“It is not too late for us to redesign our economies to move them from extractive economies to productive economies whose revenues and economic benefits will go toward the nationals of the respective regions and change this economic system through which we are plundered,” Prime Minister Browne said.
He told the delegation he was “‘very pleased” with their presence here, while expressing a desire to visit the-soon-to-be installed monarch in his Kingdom in the near future.
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