ECLAC - Economic Commission for Latin America and : ECLAC Unveils Economic and Social Panorama of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States

(27 January, 2014) The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, presented today a report entitled Economic and Social Panorama of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, 2013 during a meeting of foreign affairs ministers from the member states of that community, known by the acronym CELAC, which was held in Havana.

The document is based on extracts from some of the main annual reports published by ECLAC during 2013 and includes five chapters dedicated to the economic outlook, foreign direct investment, the social panorama, the population and gender equality.

With this study, ECLAC aims to contribute to the debates taking place within CELAC, and it hopes to turn this into an annual and permanent publication released at all of the organization's summits.

ECLAC's top official is accompanying the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who is on an official mission to attend the II Summit of Heads of State and Government of CELAC, which will take place in Havana on January 28-29.

"CELAC is the most important political achievement in recent times in the region and ECLAC, through these contributions, reiterates its commitment to the consolidation and success of this Community," Alicia Bárcena said while presenting the document.

During the meeting, the United Nations official expressed ECLAC's commitment to giving technical support to CELAC to define the agenda post-2015-in reference to the objectives that will be set next year when the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) passes-"to strengthen the region's influence in the process of its formulation and global implementation".

Alicia Bárcena also presented the foreign affairs ministers with another ECLAC report called Natural resources: status and trends towards a regional development agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In this publication, the United Nations organization poses the need to promote the governance of natural resources to maximize their contribution to development with sustainability, as well as to encourage long-term structural change associated with innovation and technological advances.