Commonwealth: Small States Ministers at CHOGM in Antigua Press for Bigger Investment as Small-State FDI Reached 5.7 Percent of GDP in 2024
The Commonwealth Ministerial Meeting on Small States was held on November 1 in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda, on the margins of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), under the theme "Scaling-up Partnerships and Investments for Resilient Small States," calling for practical cooperation, stronger investment and collective action to make small-state economies more resilient. The meeting was co-chaired by Antigua and Barbuda's Foreign Minister Chet Greene and Maldives Foreign Minister Iruthisham Adam, and host Prime Minister Gaston Browne gave a special address urging that small states be seen as strategically relevant, not only as vulnerable.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Shirley Botchwey noted that Antigua and Barbuda is the smallest nation by population ever to host a CHOGM. She launched the 23rd volume of the Commonwealth Secretariat's flagship Small States Economic Review and Basic Statistics, titled "Beyond Resilience to Strategic Relevance: The Future of Small States." The report finds small states are increasingly attractive for investment and innovation despite their economic and climate vulnerabilities: foreign direct investment reached 5.7 percent of GDP across Commonwealth small states in 2024, while remittances made up 5.6 percent of GDP.
Ministers looked at how governments, international partners and the private sector could scale up support for Commonwealth initiatives and amplify small-state priorities in multilateral forums. Seychelles Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Minister Barry Faure emphasised human capital and diaspora engagement, and invited participants to a ministerial meeting on talent circulation hosted by Seychelles on November 2 in St. John's. The meeting's outcomes will go to Heads of Government in their executive session and feed into the post-CHOGM 2026 agenda on partnerships and investment.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 照片：安提瓜和巴布达首都圣约翰市景，Jeffrey Beall 摄，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 2.0 授权 / Photo: St. John's, capital of Antigua and Barbuda, by Jeffrey Beall, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
