The 39th session of ECLAC begins in Buenos Aires
ECLAC predicts that economies in Latin America and the Caribbean will grow by 3.2% in 2022 and 1.4% in 2023
Argentine President Alberto Fernández and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs opened the 39th session of the United Nations agency in Buenos Aires on Monday.
The Foreign Minister of Costa Rica, Arnoldo Andre Tinoco, also participated in this event, representing the country where the previous meeting took place to officially pass the baton to this year’s organizers.
Monday’s event at the Kirchner Cultural Center (CCK) in the Argentine capital featured a recorded message from UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who thanked ECLAC “for seeking innovative solutions based on multilateral cooperation”.
“In addition to the impacts of the pandemic, there are also those arising from the war in Ukraine. ECLAC estimates that 16 countries have not recovered their pre-pandemic GDP levels,” Guterres said.
The Portuguese diplomat also emphasized that ECLAC’s aim was to “energize productive systems and promote social inclusion, a green transition and a just digital revolution”.
He also called for the implementation of a stimulus plan for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to provide a massive boost to sustainable development in countries, including middle-income countries in a “critical” global situation.
President Fernández said 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 added that in Latin America “the gap between the rich and the poor is the largest in the world” and called for “finding ways to avoid postponing the development of societies that should grow within a greater framework of equality”.
“The fact that we have survived such an extraordinary time imposes on us the ethical imperative to change this present. It’s time to tear down walls and build bridges. We have a moral duty to join in this common effort,” Fernandez urged.
Salazar-Xirinachs underlined that Latin America and the Caribbean needed and wanted bold, transformative policies that offer realistic and pragmatic solutions to its acute shortages and economic, social and environmental gaps, and that address many of its most basic needs. “
He also emphasized the presentation of the document “Towards the transformation of the development model in Latin America and the Caribbean: production, inclusion and sustainability” in order to “move forward, not backward”.
In the document, ECLAC pointed out ten “engines of sustainable development” as well as a series of monetary and fiscal policies to overcome the current difficulties and move towards this model.
The five-chapter text mentions energy transition, electromobility, circular economy, bioeconomy, digital transformation, health manufacturing, circular economy, sustainable tourism and harnessing the potential of small and medium-sized industries as priority areas for the transition to a new development paradigm. .
It also points to macroeconomic policies at the regional level to accelerate growth and fight inflation through stable monetary policies and fiscal measures that accelerate investment.
“The latest forecasts of ECLAC show a slowdown in the growth of economic activity, with a significant stagnation of investments. Also, a slow recovery of employment is predicted, with a significant increase in informality. Added to this is a rise in inflation to levels not seen since the global financial crisis, supported by higher external inflation and the high cost of energy and food in international markets,” the organization said.
According to ECLAC, the inflation rate in the region reached 8.4% last June, 1.8 percentage points above that recorded during the global financial crisis. ECLAC also estimated that the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean will grow by 3.2% in 2022 and “a strong slowdown is expected with a projected growth of 1.4% in 2023”.
The organization also recommended boosting investment and financing to accelerate the energy transition, guarantee universal access to electricity, create green jobs and develop renewable energy value chains as vectors for energy development and security.
“ECLAC (2020) showed that, with annual investments equivalent to 1.3% of regional GDP for a decade, greater regional integration of electricity and 100% of renewable energies in electricity generation would be achieved, with a 31.5% reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2). emissions and seven million new green jobs would be created, with the corresponding income from wages”, the document stated.
Among the energy challenges, the development of the green hydrogen value chain was described as “imperative” and “feasible”, while the role of lithium in the transition to electromobility was highlighted.
“The region can take advantage of the potential of green hydrogen not only for the energy transition and long-term decarbonization of its economies, but also to generate a new style of fair and sustainable development,” ECLAC argued. It also recommended increasing investment in key sectors for digital transformation with a doubling, by 2030, of investment in the electronics and IT sectors. ECLAC then called for an increase in public spending on health, including the pharmaceutical industry, while in relation to the circular economy, it called for promoting better use of materials in the economy by doubling investment in recycling by 2030.
Meanwhile, Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero noted that “inequality challenges us” to “reduce the gaps” between developed and developing countries.
Cafiero also explained that since its establishment in 1948, ECLAC “has never been a bureaucratic organization, it has always had life, soul, spirit” and that it “has not stood only on principles”.
The host minister also said that the ECLAC document constitutes “a valuable guide, with accurate diagnoses of the region and of a world in uncertainty”.
