enable an innovative and productive economy. But the country continued to face daunting challenges posed by its small size and attendant vulnerabilities, while attempts to build resilience were constrained by global governance and systemic imbalances, which frustrated meaningful integration into the global economy.

There was a definite need for concrete, realistic proposals to ensure the effective, permanent representation of developing countries, particularly small developing countries, in the Bretton Woods institutions and the WTO, as well as other bodies like the Financial Stability Forum (FSF), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Basel Committee, he said. The Bahamas acknowledged with optimism the growing momentum to introduce balance and evenness into the processes governing several international institutions. It welcomed the WTO work programme to make the negotiation processes more inclusiveflows in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) were private flows. The increase in external assistance was not free, since it came with certain conditions. The Bretton Woods institutions had made debt elimination conditional on the preparation of poverty-reduction strategies.

He said the responsibility for increasing financing for development was basically a domestic matter; the demand had to be changed. An interesting example was that of microcredit in Haiti. Today, all commercial banks in Haiti were involved in that endeavour. He also noted that the massive import of agricultural products had ruined many farmers. It was important to change the supply curve by making national projects more attractive and competitive.

ROGATIEN BIAOU, Minister for Foreign Affairs and African Integration of Benin, said that commitments made at the third conference for least developed