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OAS AND “PRIVATE SECTOR OF THE AMERICAS” SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the business forum Private Sector of the Americas signed a cooperation agreement designed to promote dialogue and foster public-private alliances that help create jobs, combat poverty and strengthen integral development in the region.

The agreement was signed at OAS headquarters by Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and Argentine businessman Ernesto Gutiérrez, who heads Private Sector of the Americas, a non-profit organization created to facilitate this type of cooperation. During the signing ceremony, which was attended by diplomats and business representatives from around the region, Insulza said public policies should be enriched by the experiences of those who do business and participate on a daily basis in national and regional markets.

“The business sector can make an important contribution to the improvement of public policies and can even help find solutions that will complement the actions of states and development agencies,” the Secretary General said. At the same time, he added, the public sector has a fundamental role in shaping values and in creating a social environment in which it is possible both to prosper and to have justice.

Insulza stressed that the debate of the early 90s over the respective roles of the market and the state has become outdated, and there is a growing recognition of the need to work together to achieve common goals that will benefit the region. “We are all convinced of the need to create a new culture of production and competitiveness that generates opportunities for our people and is grounded in democracy,” he said. The issues on the OAS agenda—such as democratic governance, human rights, social and cultural rights, sustainable development and the fight against poverty—are also important to the private sector, which is increasingly committed to “corporate social responsibility” and to the region’s economic and social development, Insulza said.

Ernesto Gutiérrez, President of Aeropuertos Argentinos 2000, said the business sector is prepared to work with the governments of the hemisphere, through the OAS, to “build sustainable strategies for development that are rooted in market opportunities and that generate social and economic returns.” Noting that the region “needs to create more and better jobs, to break the cycles of poverty and instability,” Gutiérrez stressed the need to produce conditions that foster business development at all levels, since private companies are the generators of productive employment. “We need focused political policies that stimulate the formation of human capital based on good nutrition, health, education and continued training; and a stable institutional and legal framework that is fair and transparent and that allows businesses and workers to generate and have access to quality jobs that are protected by effectively applied norms,” he said.

The agreement represents the next step in a dialogue between the private sector and the OAS that began last June at the OAS General Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and continued in November in Buenos Aires, during the Fourth Summit of the Americas. Another private sector forum will take place in the Dominican Republic in June, within the framework of this year’s regular session of the OAS General Assembly.

Reference: E-088/06