Activities of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)

FDI falls in the region

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Latin America and the Caribbean fell for the fourth year running and reached almost US$36.5 billion in 2003, a sharp 19% decline over the previous year, due mainly to drops in Brazil and Mexico. It is the only region in the world where FDI fell, plunging to well under the US$88 billion in inflows posted in 1999, its historic peak, according to the document Foreign Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2003 Report, presented by ECLAC on 17 May 2004.

According to the ECLAC study, Latin America and the Caribbean benefited from the rise in FDI during the 1990s, but when this investment started to fade, problems arising from the business strategies that made this boom possible began to deepen. An analysis of what happened in the region offers an important conclusion: receiving countries not only must attract foreign direct investments, they must also pay attention to its benefits and costs.

Explosive Rise in Remittances

According to an ECLAC study, there has been an explosive rise in the remittances that Latin American and Caribbean emigrants send home to their countries of origin, and these resources have turned into the region's second largest source of external financing, topped only by foreign direct investment. This has occurred despite the fact that most funds sent by workers to their families barely exceed US$200 per month.

ECLAC estimates that almost 20 million Latin Americans and Caribbeans live outside their country of birth. Half of these emigrated during the 1990s, mainly to the US and to a lesser degree Europe. About US$25 billion in remittances entered the region in 2002. Since the early 1980s, funds that emigrants send back home rose by an annual average of 12.4%, the highest growth rate for the different regions around the world. This region received 31.3% of all remittances flowing into developing countries.

ECLAC’s Former Executive Secretaries Analyse Region's Economy

At the invitation of the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Mr. Jose Luis Machinea, three former Executive Secretaries of ECLAC, Enrique V. Iglesias, Gert Rosenthal and José Antonio Ocampo, met on 19 March 2004 in Santiago, to reflect on recent economic and social trends in the region and future prospects.

Enrique V. Iglesias, Executive Secretary from April 1972 to February 1985, and currently the President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), spoke on “The Crisis of the 1980s and on the transition to a new development model for the region.” Gert Rosenthal, Executive Secretary from January 1988 to December 1997, and currently Guatemala's Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations, spoke on “Open Regionalism from the Perspective of the New Century.” José Antonio Ocampo, Executive Secretary from January 1998 to August 2003, and currently United Nations Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, spoke on the subject “Latin America and the Caribbean's Challenges in the New International Context.”

Lecture by the President of Harvard University in ECLAC

Mr. Lawrence Summers, President of Harvard University and former Secretary of the United States Treasury spoke on “Globalization, education and the two Americas and their relationship”, at the headquarters of ECLAC on 30 March, 2004. Mr. Summers also expressed his interest in the process of globalization as it affects universities and study programmes abroad. Harvard University's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies opened a regional office in Santiago, Chile in August 2002. This pilot project, which also covers Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Uruguay, manages the University's study abroad programme, offering support services to Harvard University professors and students.

ECLAC and UNFPA review progress in ICPD follow-up

 ECLAC together with UNFPA held an Open-ended Meeting of the Presiding Officers in March 2004, to examine the region's progress in applying the Programme of Action approved at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994. The outcome document, unanimously approved, with the only exception of the United States, calls for encouraging education and promoting the access of adolescents and young people to information about sexual and reproductive health services, and expanding efforts to prevent, diagnose and treat sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS.

At the same time, the document expresses concern about the decline in financial support for the region and asks the international community to implement the consensus from the International Conference on Financing for Development, held in (Mexico) in 2002, to encourage a rise in financial flows into the region and sufficient financing to speed implementation of the Programme of Action and the Key Actions in the fight against poverty and inequality.

Improving Urban Management

The current growth and consolidation of human settlements in Latin America and the Caribbean are posing new challenges, especially in terms of cities' sustainability and the integration of economic, social and environmental elements into the agenda of urban policy planners at national and local levels.

With the support of the Government of Italy, from 2000 to 2003 ECLAC carried out the project “Urban Management Strategies and Instruments for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean”, to analyze, systematize and explore urban management instruments that can be applied by urban governments to deal with these challenges.

Caribbean Assessment for Beijing + 10

The Fourth Caribbean Ministerial Conference on Women convened in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in February 2004, to review the objectives of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action and assess their implementation. The Conference was hosted by the ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean in collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), UNIFEM and the CARICOM Secretariat.

The Caribbean meeting highlighted health issues—particularly sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS—and assessed achievements in the subregion's five priority areas for action. It also produced a Consensus on the Way Forward—a series of recommendations for further action.

Common Strategy on Ageing

During the Regional Conference held in ECLAC in November 2003, there was agreement to define priorities for implementing the “Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing,” launched by the United Nations in 2002, and which also forms part of the Millennium Declaration.

The Strategy defined goals and objectives for each of the main issues dealt with by the Conference in order to create the conditions necessary for the full participation of senior citizens in society.

ECLAC selected meetings

2004

5 July - 30 Sept.

Summer School on Latin American Economies

July

12-16

Sixth Iberoamerican meeting on the measurement and analysis of tourism

26-27

International Forum on Development Strategies

2-10 August

Environmental Performance Review of Chile

27 September

International workshop on indicators of the monitoring of the Madrid Plan of Action

October

(open)

Ad-hoc expert group meeting to discuss the needs of the ageing societies in the Caribbean

ECLAC selected publications

Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2003, LC/G.2223-P (Sales No.:03.II.G.186; ISBN 9213223045)

Meeting the Millennium Poverty Reduction Targets in Latin America and the Caribbean, LC/L.2062-P (Sales No.: 04.II.G.6; ISBN 9213223382)

Potential Output in Latin America:  A Standard Approach for the 1950-2002 Period, LC/L.2042-P (Sales No.: 03.II.G.205; ISBN: 9211214297)

Remittances by Emigrants - Issues and Evidence, LC/L.1990-P (Sales No.: 03.II.G.152; ISBN: 9211214211)