The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, invited the representatives of the European Union (EU) in Latin American and Caribbean countries today to orient bi-regional development cooperation towards the priorities of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to join the debates about the region’s future that will take place during ECLAC’s thirty-sixth session in Mexico City, Mexico, from May 23-27.
Bárcena was one of the main speakers at the seminar for Latin America and the Caribbean inaugurated this Tuesday, May 17, in Havana, Cuba by the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO).
The event was inaugurated by Jolita Butkeviciene, DG DEVCO’s Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Edita Hrdá, Managing Director Americas of the European External Action Service. After that, Bárcena and Marjeta Jager, Deputy Director-General for International Cooperation and Development, spoke before an audience made up of EU representatives in the region, international officials and scholars.
During her keynote presentation, entitled “The Latin American and Caribbean development agenda in a new international context,” ECLAC’s most senior representative gave an overview of the region’s economic and social situation and analyzed the opportunities to strengthen bi-regional dialogue that arise with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“Some of the areas that can be addressed through bi-regional cooperation include the means for implementing the 2030 Agenda, quality foreign direct investment for financing development, trade accords, the transfer of technology, and the empowerment of small and medium-sized enterprises,” Bárcena explained.
The regional dimension of the 2030 Agenda will be one of the main topics of discussion during ECLAC’s next session, which is the most important biannual meeting of this United Nations organization. The gathering will be inaugurated on May 24 by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, with the special participation of Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
At least 30 ministers and deputy ministers of Foreign Relations, Finance, Economy, Production, Trade, Planning, Social Development and Women’s Affairs—among others—have confirmed their attendance at the high-level meeting organized by ECLAC.
Before all of the EU’s representatives in the region, Alicia Bárcena also highlighted as part of the bi-regional agenda the challenges of putting in motion the Paris Agreement on climate change and the need to promote sustainable cities.
She underscored in this sense the successful cooperation programs carried out by ECLAC and the European Commission recently, including the Alliance for the Information Society (@LIS 1 and 2), EUROCLIMA (I and II) and the collaboration around EUROsociAL. She also said that a new project is about to start to support small and medium-sized enterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean in the framework of AL-INVEST 5.0.
More information:
You can follow all the details of the thirty-sixth session on social media with the hashtags #Horizontes2030 and #Horizons2030.
For press-related inquiries, contact:
In Mexico City: María Luisa Díaz de León, Public Information Official, ECLAC’s Subregional Headquarters in Mexico. E-mail: marialuisa.diaz@cepal.org; Telephone: (52 55) 41705665.
In Santiago, Chile: Félix Ibáñez, Officer-in-Charge of ECLAC’s Public Information Unit. E-mail: prensa@cepal.org; Telephone: (56) 22210 2040.
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