Photo Caption: Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith endorses the Closing Investment Gap (CIG) approach at a press conference hosted in the margins of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sunday, September 22. Co-Founder of Matarin Capital, Nili Gilbert looks on.
Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, Jamaica’s Foreign Minister, in her address to international media yesterday (September 22), endorsed the Closing Investment Gap (CIG) approach as an important mechanism for driving investment capital to Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The Minister was speaking at the launch of phase three (3) of the CIG Initiative, in the margins of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The Minister noted that appropriately scaling up the CIG approach “will be essential in unleashing flows of private investments to support the implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in developing countries”.
Jamaica, along with Canada, serves as Co-Chair of the Group of Friends on Sustainable Development Financing. The country is also co-lead on Climate Finance and Carbon Pricing for the UN’s 2019 Climate Action Summit.
The Minister, who travelled on the weekend as part of the Jamaican delegation to the UNGA, signed a Visa Waiver Agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday. She will also continue her bilateral meetings with her counterparts from Ghana, South Africa, Algeria and Costa Rica during the week.
Minister Johnson Smith is also scheduled to address the international press tomorrow (September 24) on the Joint African Caribbean Pacific (ACP)-European Union (EU) Declaration on the SDGs.
