The just-concluded World Economic Forum on Latin America gathered more than 500 government and business leaders to actively hammer out measures aimed at jointly confronting the global financial crisis.
Discussions at the forum, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday, centered on efforts to actively face the economic slowdown, determine public policies for sustainable growth and consider various aspects of "green development."
The director of the forum, Emilio Lozoya Austin, pointed out that the meeting was held at a crucial time for the region because it provided an opportunity for the participants to cooperatively consider ways to deal with the crisis.
With their rich natural resources, young labor force and relatively stable financial systems, Latin American countries are able to successfully ride out the trouble, he said.
Since the 1980s, Latin American countries have suffered a number of economic and financial problems that gravely affected their economies and people's lives.
Thanks to a variety of reforms between the 1990s and early 2000s, however, the regional economy entered a growth period in 2003 and achieved an average annual growth rate of around 5 percent for the next six years.
That trend, though, was checked by the current downturn.
The Economic Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean has predicted a slippage of 0.3 percent in the region's economy, the first decline in six years.
Countries in the region are eager for an early end to the upheaval and a resumption of growth. To this end, they have resolutely taken steps and actively adopted stimulus measures according to their own situation.
Nearly 400 stimulus measures have been adopted by Latin American countries since the fourth quarter of 2008, including tax cuts, subsidies, expanded public spending and the speeding up of infrastructure construction, adding at least 150 billion dollars to the public investment capital. Brazil alone has planned a 44 billion-dollar increase in its budget for 2009.
In their cooperation with the international community to manage the crisis, countries in the region urged developed countries such as the United States to improve and strengthen financial supervision.
They urged that international capital flow back into developing countries and that developing nations have a greater say in dealing with global economic and financial affairs.
They also called for the early resumption of the Doha Round talks and voiced opposition to any forms of protectionism.
Compared to previous economic downturns, many countries in the region this time not only suffered comparatively small losses and have the basic conditions needed for economic revival, they also are able to provide assistance for other poor countries.
Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, had to turn to the International Monetary Fund for aid to get through several previous crises. This time, it has kept a large foreign reserve of 200 billion dollars and has also announced that it will contribute 4.5 billion dollars to the IMF to help other countries through the upheaval.
Latin America, with a population of 570 million, saw its Gross Domestic Production in 2008 exceed 4 trillion dollars for the first time. The region is able to provide rich natural resources for reviving the world economy.
Further more, as a huge consumer market, Latin America can absorb considerable amounts of products and services from foreign countries, stimulating world economic growth.
Despite the downturn, Latin America remains a hot spot drawing the attention of global investors, and takes up a growing proportion of the world's direct foreign investments.
To sum up, as was pointed out by Austin, the meeting was the first time that the World Economic Forum regarded the region as an active force in the fight against the recession.
We have every reason to believe that with proper and timely response measures, it is possible for Latin American countries to get out of the economic crisis soon and contribute to the recovery and development of the world economy.
Source: Xinhua
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