How to start? My heart is pounding. I have been deeply moved by the La Colmenita group performance; in fact, this beautiful tribute that they have offered ECLAC is historic.
His Excellency Mr. Miguel Díaz-Canel, President of the Councils of State and Ministers of the Republic of Cuba;
Dear Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. António Guterres;
Dear Francisco Guzmán Ortiz, Chief of the Presidential Staff of the United Mexican States;
I greet with great pleasure and affection the ladies and gentlemen, members of the Council of Ministers of Cuba, and especially Ricardo Cabrisas, Bruno Rodríguez, and Rodrigo Malmierca, without you it would not have been possible to hold this event in Cuba, and all your teams, of course;
Esteemed national authorities;
Esteemed ladies and gentlemen of the Diplomatic Corps;
Dear Consuelo Vidal, resident coordinator of the United Nations in Cuba;
Dear Ambassador Anayansi Rodríguez;
Representatives of international organizations;
Dear colleagues of the United Nations System and of ECLAC;
Dear civil society colleagues;
And I want to greet with special affection our beloved former executive secretaries of ECLAC who are with us today: Enrique Iglesias, Gert Rosenthal, José Antonio Ocampo, and José Luis Machinea (Applause). Thank you very much for being here.
Friends:
First of all, I would like to extend to you, Mr. President Miguel Díaz-Canel, my deep gratitude, because we have been received with such hospitality that it overwhelms the heart, and the truth is that the collaboration with which Cuba, its government and its people, have hosted this Thirty-seventh Period of Sessions of ECLAC, and the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of our institution, is historic.
We are honored to be in Cuba, together with this noble people who have carved out their own original destiny, and I would like to say, as the poet sang: "A long green lizard, with eyes of stone and water," opened its heart to us – the poet didn't say that – that's what we at ECLAC say, it opened its heart to us, infected us with its enthusiasm, and we saw with astonishment and affection, and with what pride "Cuba sails along its map." (Applause)
Your presence commits us, Mr. President, because we are aware of the enormous responsibilities that the Assembly of People's Power has recently charged you, as the new President of the Councils of State and Ministers.
And I want to say to our dear António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, that his presence deeply moves us, it means a lot to our region of Latin America and the Caribbean, and is a testament to the commitment of our great organization, that of the United Nations, before ECLAC and its member states.
Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary, because I know that you made an enormous effort to join us today. (Applause)
I want to pay tribute and express gratitude to the Mexican government, because Mexico offered us two years of leadership in the ECLAC presidency. Through his conduct, Frank Guzmán – as we fondly call him – please tell President Enrique Peña Nieto, thank you! Because during his term, in addition, the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean was created, a great regional mechanism that unites us, that summons us, that provokes us.
Friends:
Today we will witness the transfer from Mexico to Cuba of the presidency of ECLAC, and this circumstance brings to mind other significant milestones that Cuba and Mexico have shared. One of them in which we have been protagonists, luckily, because Mexico was the first country in our Latin America that, in 1875, was met with the curious gaze and the unusual intelligence of José Martí, who was then 22 years old, and there in Mexico he was inspired, as he began his journalistic vocation and displayed his literary qualities.
This Mexican experience also fueled that relevant voice of he whom Fidel Castro called the intellectual author of the Moncada Assault.
Today it is worth remembering one of his main reflections for us and I quote: "The true man," – or woman – "does not look to see on which side one lives better, but on which side duty lies," and that is why we are here, because ECLAC is an authentic Latin American and Caribbean voice, its institutional history intersects with the vicissitudes of the history of our continent. Our work has been, and will continue to be, to provide the governments and peoples of the region, based on respect for their sovereign autonomy, with relevant, timely, rigorous, and committed support to build a development project with a clear horizon: to equalize in order to grow and grow to equalize.
The case of cooperation with Cuba, Mr. President, is unique. Yesterday we analyzed it in detail, on the National Day. In particular, I would like to thank the trust placed in ECLAC to accompany and support the implementation of the Guidelines for the updating of the economic and social model set in motion by President Raúl Castro in 2011.
This country that welcomes us today, and it is only right to emphasize it, is trying out its own path in the face of the brutal human costs that the imposition of an unjust blockade has caused for more than 50 years. We evaluate it every year, as an Economic Commission, and we know that this blockade has cost the Cuban people more than 130 billion dollars, at current prices, and that it has left an indelible mark on its economic structure.
Mr. President:
This is the most important meeting of ECLAC, because here we come to report to you. We come to present the work done, to receive your guidance and your criticisms. We come so that the countries that chair our subsidiary bodies – and I appreciate the presence of many of the presidents of the subsidiary bodies – will present the reports on Statistics, Women, Population, Science and Technology, Social Development, Planning, South-South Cooperation, and the Caribbean Cooperation Committee
We will share the results of the Second Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, which was held just two weeks ago in Santiago, and together with our executive secretaries we will revisit the stages of the rich history of these seven decades of the organization at the service of the development of the countries of the region.
We will review the new scenarios posed by South-South cooperation, in the context of which it is true that a redefinition of international cooperation is required, even more so in a region in transition like ours, which today is considered and described as a middle-income region.
As of 2010, ECLAC has positioned equality as a fundamental value of development and as an irreducible ethical principle, and in line with the growing relevance of the issue among citizen demands.
We have said that equality is at the center of development, because it provides policies with an ultimate purpose centered on a rights-based approach, with a humanist vocation that reflects the most precious heritage of modernity. It is also a favorable condition to move toward a development model focused on closing structural gaps, and on technological convergence that allows us to advance to higher levels of productivity, with economic and environmental sustainability, thinking about future generations. Today we take a step further, and we bring you a proposal and a commitment, with policy proposals that we have expressed in the document called: The Inefficiency of Inequality.
We affirm that inequality is not only unjust, but it is inefficient and unsustainable. We have brought empirical evidence to support this statement, of why it is inefficient. Not only from the social point of view is it unacceptable, but from the economic point of view, it is not viable for the future.
Why do we state this? Because it generates and sustains institutions that do not promote productivity or innovation, as they reward or punish people based on class, ethnicity, or gender; and because it generates a culture of privilege that reinforces these inequalities, incorporates them into social relations as something acceptable and natural, and reproduces them over time.
Discrimination closes doors and also represents the loss of learning and innovation experience favorable to productivity, especially in discrimination against women. The glass ceiling that restricts the advancement of women in their careers is also a ceiling to productivity.
Today in our continent poverty has a woman's face. One third of Latin American and Caribbean women do not manage to generate income and are economically dependent; and when they do, their salary is significantly lower than that of men with equal levels of education and skills.
The costs of exclusionary institutions are many, let's consider the great losses of potential productivity that result from the inequality of access to education, and that occur in one generation, and sometimes in our region are transmitted to other generations, intergenerationally, and this is especially serious in the context of the technological revolution, where the abilities – as Prebisch said – to endogenously absorb technical progress, are indispensable to compete and generate employment.
Our endemic structural heterogeneity is the factory of inequality; it buries its roots in the culture of privilege, and it emerges, precisely, in that conjunction of structures with limited diversification, low intensity of knowledge, and inefficient institutions. That is why we propose a path to move from a culture of privilege to one of equality, to achieve these tasks that are undoubtedly associated with growth and productive diversification with innovation. But we should and must expand our fiscal spaces to sustain financing capacity, and also to protect those citizens who will be marginalized in the context of these profound transformations, especially in the world of work.
We are committed to a new welfare system, which is based on public finances that move from the current role of crisis management to one that is development-oriented; progressive and sufficient tax systems, an increase in public investment, which is the worst hit variable when there is an issue of fiscal consolidation, increases in public investment and social spending, precisely to close these structural gaps.
We need macroeconomics for development, which seeks to protect. Yes, real stability is very important – and my colleagues will surely talk about that – in those decades when it was so urgent to protect and achieve real stability and financial stability through countercyclical policies – also proposed by my predecessors – that protect the revitalizing role of public investment.
A resolute struggle against corruption in the public and private sphere is required. It is sad to see that 57% of Latin Americans, in a study that we just concluded with the OECD and the CAF, that shows that 57% of Latin American citizens do not trust their institutions; we have to change this. That is why a mechanism is urgently needed, renewed institutions that allow greater control on the part of citizens: if paying taxes is a duty, monitoring public spending is a right.
And, incidentally, it is necessary to resume the debates of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, because no matter how hard countries try to ensure fiscal discipline, a national fiscal policy, it is necessary to establish global fiscal regulations to eradicate the transnationalization of tax evasion, fiscal illusion, and end the system of globalized fiscal privileges.
Dear friends:
The increase in investment rates in Latin America remains a pending task. Note that the levels of gross fixed capital formation have been below the levels recorded in other regions; while Latin America has been positioned around 20%, East Asia has reached very high levels, over 30%, sometimes reaching 40%. We can no longer ignore this; the growing gap between these two regions is closely linked to investment and innovation.
On beginning this new decade, Mr. President, starting it precisely with the presidency of Cuba, ECLAC is very aware, fully aware of the complex transformations that will continue to affect the region and the world. In order to face them through multilateralism, the Secretary-General has proposed three reform processes that are underway: the administrative process, that of the development pillar, and the peace and security system.
The three reforms are vital, because they respond to the urgent need for the United Nations system to be more assertive, to be effective, more decentralized, and to work in coordination to support countries. It is about being better prepared to support you to implement the 2030 Agenda, to face challenges of the magnitude of climate change.
That is why today we want to reinforce our conviction and commitment to promote, to build together, precisely with member states, this road that we must travel together, also undertaking an accurate reading of what is happening in the present. Because it is true that we have better prospects for global growth, that there is better synchrony, more than 140 countries growing at the same time; but there are worrying contingencies and uncertainties.
We are also alert to trade confrontations between global economic elements, coupled with the return of more protectionist policies.
We view with concern the deployment of a rapid technological revolution, which is difficult for us to keep up with, while outlining potential threats to the future of work.
ECLAC has forecast growth in our region for this year of 2.2%. We are growing again after a couple of years of recession, and trade is also picking up slightly, with better prices in raw materials; but, no matter what, regional integration is a pending task.
We must continue to fight for greater regional integration, not only commercial but productive, as Noyola would say, with integrated industries, with industries in our region. This is more necessary than ever, because our region, and it is painful to say so, despite not being the poorest and having made progress in the last decade, is still the most unequal region in the world. Our singular wealth of natural resources and human capacities still does not translate into a more dignified life for all its inhabitants.
In this past year, more than 187 million people continue to live in poverty and, of these, 62 million in extreme poverty. A wake-up call, because we are committed to eliminating poverty in all its forms by 2030. Thus we must accelerate the pace, and we propose a huge environmental drive that promotes industrial and technological policies that deploy the range of low-carbon productive activities, such as energy renewable.
We thus propose greater integration of new, innovative, digital, technological industries, that connects us, that links us, that interconnects us through productive chains, human chains, and that stimulate growth.
A new generation fiscal policy with renewed institutions, to be able to act in the social field and ensure that no one is left behind.
The region must overcome a development style that reveals environmental inefficiencies and is highly exposed to the growing impact of climate change. And the truth is that we do not need to look very far for the evidence, recent catastrophic events demonstrate this clearly.
The most affected part of our region, where all of us must strongly support each other, is the Caribbean, and that is precisely why at ECLAC we have made the decision that in all ECLAC sessions there will always be a session of the Caribbean First (group). This is fundamental, because the historical magnitude of hurricanes Irma and Maria underscores the urgency to act, and act collectively.
The economic costs of climate change in the region, calculated by us, ECLAC, through 2050, are between 1.5% and 5% of regional GDP. In some Caribbean nations, in the recent disaster, this estimate even reached figures above 100% of GDP. This is what is happening to us in the region and its impacts are not linear, they heterogeneously affect different regions, periods and social groups in different ways, especially the most marginalized.
Therefore, it is urgent that the civilizing agenda entailed in the 2030 Agenda has equality at its core, with an identity and roots in Latin America and the Caribbean; that from our history, from our rich diversity, from our shared hopes and common challenges, we give it our own face, our institutions, and we imprint it with the pressing needs that our reality demands.
The 2030 Agenda outlines a path to launch a new generation of policies and institutions, a new style of development and achieve a virtuous circle of growth, equality and sustainability. We owe it to the present and future generations, we owe it to the children of La Colmenita who today made us cry and dance, and I believe it is our responsibility.
We are possibly the first generation to have more evidence than any other of the risks that the world faces today, but perhaps we could be the last that can solve them.
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, I want to thank you very deeply for all the expressions of affection and institutional recognition for our 70th anniversary, I receive them in the company of the four previous executive secretaries: Enrique Iglesias, Gert Rosenthal, José Antonio and José Luis Machinea.
I want to recognize that, together with them, it has been possible to have an ECLAC with leadership in the region. Each of us were responsible at a different time, but there is no doubt that we will agree, I am sure that all five of us agree today that leading ECLAC has been the greatest honor that life has afforded us. So that's how it is, Mr. President.
I want to end just by saying that with different outlooks, but with the same commitment, I believe we can recall a beloved Cuban, Nicolás Guillén, when he said with wisdom and simplicity: I have, let's see/that I have learned to read/to count/I have that I have learned to write/and to think/and to laugh. I have, now I have/a place to work/and to earn/what I have to eat/I have, let's see/I have what I had to have.
Thank you very much. (Applause)
(Council of State transcript / GI translation)
Taken from Granma
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