The Prime Minister of Sao Tome and Principe, Jorge Bom Jesus, asked today in Lisbon for more support from the international community to promote the blue economy and “correct the deficit” of employment in the country.
“Sao Tome and Principe would very much like to benefit from additional financial support, tailored to the real conditions and modalities of our country, to enable us to consolidate our capabilities to fully achieve the objectives set in the framework of the strategy to benefit blue growth, public-private initiative and correct our deficit in employment and entrepreneurship capacity of our youth, men and women,” said the head of the Sao Tomean government, in his speech at the plenary on the second day of the United Nations Oceans Conference, being held in Lisbon.
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Bom Jesus said that the “growth model in force” in Sao Tome and Principe exerts “a strong pressure on the aquatic ecosystem and oceans, as well as on the right of the communities of coastal and riparian areas,” which “urgently needs to be reversed.
“It is necessary for all, and particularly the international community, to begin to see Sao Tome and Principe with eyes to see, in order to do everything to support the country to be materially, financially and institutionally up to its oceanic potential and the goals set in this regard,” said the Prime Minister of Sao Tome.
Jorge Bom Jesus recalled that the country, composed of two islands, “has a vast exclusive economic zone that is 160 times larger than the land surface, with significant potential for its economic and social development, associated with an economy of the oceans.
The prime minister said that the parliament of Sao Tome and Principe should approve “in the coming weeks” a new legislation for the “national strategy for transition to a blue economy” in Sao Tome and Principe.
“I assure you that immediately after the National Assembly approves the law, nothing will be the same as before. Everything we can do will be aligned with the axes and pillars on which the national strategy is based, requiring either in the national institutional plan, or in the plan of relationship with our partners, the alignment of their indicative programs with our strategy,” he added.
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Bom Jesus left the “firm commitment and engagement” of the authorities of his country to continue “on the path of implementing a sustained and resilient transition process” of the national economy “towards the blue economy”.In his speech, the governor also left an appeal about crime in the Gulf of Guinea.
“I would like you not to forget the phenomenon of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and the need to join hands to combat it,” said Jorge Bom Jesus.
