(17 May 2012) The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Alicia Bárcena concluded her official visit to the Republic of Korea on Wednesday, during which she met with authorities of this Asian country and participated in the 2012 High-Level Forum on Korea-Latin American and Caribbean Partnership.
The United Nations high-level official held a meeting with Keun Ho Jang, Director-General for Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Korea, as well as with other authorities, with whom she reaffirmed cooperation between the Republic of Korea and this UN regional commission. One of the main activities of this cooperation is the official visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Kim, Sung-Hwan to the ECLAC's headquarters on 25 May.
In her presentation at the High-Level Forum, Bárcena specified emerging cooperation opportunities between Latin America and the Caribbean and the Republic of Korea due to structural changes in the Korean economy and the country's accumulation of knowledge on good practices.
"The Republic of Korea has an enormous experience in developing and adopting sustainable production and consumption processes that can be shared with Latin America and the Caribbean," explained the Executive Secretary of ECLAC.
"Current patterns of economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean are not consistent with a sustainable development. The magnitude of the efforts needed to change this situation implies significant modifications to current production, consumption and distribution patterns, as well as transforming the technological paradigm and the existing relative prices structure. Cooperation is crucial for accelerating this transition, and Korea's experience is invaluable in this regard," stated Bárcena.
The Executive Secretary stressed that Latin America and the Caribbean and Korea must capitalize on the vast potential of South-South cooperation to "green" their economic links. Among the actions that can be adopted for achieving this goal, she mentioned the diversification of trade and the promotion of Latin American exports with increased added value and knowledge, as well as creating incentives for bi-regional foreign direct investments.
She also said that the participation of firms from both regions in global and regional value chains must be fostered, bi-regional business alliances created, cooperation on research and development improved, and innovation, human capital and trade facilitation promoted.
Also during her visit to Korea, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC held meetings with Han, Seung-soo, Board Chair of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and former Prime Minister of Korea; Oh-Seok Hyun, from the Korean Development Institute (KDI); Han, Choong-Sik, Vice President of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA); Cha-Hoon koo, President of the Korean Council for Latin America and the Caribbean (KCLAC); y Kim, Sangkyom, Vice President of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP).
For further questions, please contact ECLAC's Public Information and Web Services Unit:
E-mail: dpisantiago@cepal.org, telephone: 562 210 2040.
