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OAS Secretary General Discusses Vision for Stable Growth in Latin America

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, said today, at the International Economic Forum of the Americas' Conference of Montreal, that the region has become "a resolute and committed partner in addressing global challenges, forging new venues at home in developing a range of original policies and internationally becoming more open, constantly trying to forge new alliances enabling the region to become more stable."

Other participants in the high-level meeting in the Canadian city are Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States, Carlos da Silva Costa, Governor of the Bank of Portugal, and Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Manging Director of the World Bank, among other international political and economic authorities gathered to discuss issues surrounding globalization, with particular emphasis on the relationships of the Americas with other parts of the world.

In his speech, Secretary General Insulza said the lessons learned from the crises of the nineties have allowed Latin America to emerge "relatively unscathed" from the current crisis, due to "the adoption of anti-cyclical monetary and fiscal policies." He warned that the region still faces challenges like inequality, pervasive levels of crime and violence in some countries, and recalled that countries whose economies are more closely linked to that of the United States, like Mexico and some countries in Central America and the Caribbean, have suffered more than others.

Insulza pointed out that, in the last decade, Latin America has achieved, for the first time in its history, "a combination of high growth, macroeconomic stability, poverty reduction and improvement in income distribution," and added that part of the progress achieved is due to social protection programs. "Social spending has increased; in health care, in education social human indicators are constantly improving in the region," he said, although he pointed out that the region now faces "three main economic challenges" in "infrastructure, human capital and education, and innovation."

"Access to basic infrastructure services - roads, electricity, water, sanitation - still remains a key challenge in the fight against poverty in Latin America and in the search for sustainable growth," said Secretary General Insulza, who recalled that the issue is so important that it became one of the central themes of the Sixth Summit of the Americas, held in Cartagena under the title "Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity." At the meeting the leaders of the hemisphere discussed the importance of physical integration in achieving greater levels of development and overcoming challenges such as "poverty and inequalities, citizen security, disasters and access to technologies," he explained.

The OAS leader emphasized the importance of fully developing the "human capital" in Latin America and of the need to "change the traditional education models in order to build a culture of creativity and innovation that meets market needs." The Secretary General also stressed the need to better promote innovation in the region, and recalled that the issue will be the central focus of the Americas Competitiveness Forum, which will take place in November in Cali, Colombia.

As a whole, he concluded, "as a region, Latin America and the Caribbean has the ability to build the future with all its complexities and challenges. We need long term strategies anchored on income-generating goods and services with higher aggregate value in order to make a tangible and long lasting difference in the quality of life of our population."

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-214/12