BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – The 39th session of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is underway here with a call for the countries of the region to raise the level of ambition and promote transformative actions to move towards sustainable and equitable development.
President Alberto Fernandez of Argentina told the most important biennial meeting of the regional Commission that the current situation “requires us to take a critical look and innovative responses to design policies and solutions made in and for Latin America and the Caribbean”.
He stressed that the world crisis has highlighted the value of solidarity and stressed that such an experience demands the countries of the region to strengthen cooperation actions and regional alliances to implement joint and solidarity actions.
“Cooperating is an imperative of fraternity and at the same time a necessary condition to achieve equitable development that does not plunge the men and women who inhabit these lands into poverty.
“ECLAC offers us a privileged space for a collective and pluralist construction that encourages a sensitive look at the needs of the countries of the region. A look capable of using the technological revolution to offer new solutions to the development challenges that our region demands”, he added.
The outgoing ECLAC chairman, and the Foreign Minister of Costa Rica, Arnoldo André Tinoco, warned that the priorities for the region must continue to be economic recovery and production, the fight against climate change and the loss of biodiversity, realizing gender equality and human rights and building more inclusive and sustainable societies.
“We are pending the sustainable energy transition and the digitization required to insert ourselves into the new engines of development. Let’s continue advancing in our unified agenda as a region, this is our challenge and commitment.”
EXCLAC executive secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, warned that Latin America and the Caribbean is in need and desire of transformative and audacious policies that offer realistic and pragmatic solutions to its acute economic, social and environmental shortcomings.
He said this was also needed to resolve many of the most basic needs, especially of the poor and vulnerable, but also from middle classes that are also vulnerable and suffer from the impact of economic cycles.
“The goal in this post-pandemic era and for 2023 cannot only be to mitigate the damage of the pandemic and reactivate the economy, as if we could be satisfied with returning to the situation before the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
“Of course we must mitigate the damage, such as the increase in poverty, informality and inequality, and face the educational blackout, but it is also about promoting transformative actions for development, it is about the countries of the region advancing, manage to get out of the middle income trap and fulfill the legitimate dream of being socially inclusive countries based on dynamic, sustained, sustainable and inclusive growth”, he said.
Following the opening ceremony, ECLAC presented the document entitled “Towards the transformation of the development model in Latin America and the Caribbean: production, inclusion and sustainability,’ in which the regional Commission urges to redouble efforts to transform the models of development and place in the center policies of transformation and productive diversification.
