Integrating Latin America is the focus of debate on Tuesday amongst nearly 1,500 delegates from 43 nations attending an economic forum in Cuba's capital Havana.

Against the backdrop of globalization their is an urgency about the need for regional cooperation at the ninth International Economists' Meeting on Globalization and Development Problems, which runs from Monday till Friday.

Since the first session of the forum in 1998, globalization has changed from a semantic controversy to an ever-growing threat to the human species, Roberto Verrier, the head of Cuba's National Association of Economists and Accountants and a member of the organizing committee, told the opening meeting on Monday.

Orlando Caputo, from Chile's Transnationalization, Economy and Society Study Center, told reporters that in Latin America, which is suffering from ever deeper underdevelopment and inequality, one can see the abject failure of neo-liberalism. Caputo criticized the International Monetary Fund for continuing to preach this doctrine.

The Forum will feature a talk from Uruguay's Didier Opertti, secretary general of the Latin American Development Association, according to organizers. The agenda also includes discussions on free trade and the development of the regional bloc Mercosur.

On the sidelines of the forum, there will be meetings of the Latin American Political Economy Society and the National Scientific Society Council. Legislators, economists, sociologists, philosophers and social scientists will hold separate gatherings in exchange of views.

The forum will bring together 27 international organizations and economists from 16 colleges.

Source: Xinhua