Latin America and the Caribbean must close today the structural productive, educational and income gaps there are in order to advance towards inclusive and sustainable development, states ECLAC.

During two forums parallel to the VII Americas Summit, the executive director of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, insisted on the fact that inequality conspires against the stability of the democracies developing in the region.

The United Nations’ regional organization has recently cut down to 1% the growth projection of Latin American’s economy in 2015, due to a context of global slowdown and volatility.

Barcena urged to increase efforts to achieve development goals with a long-term strategic perspective.

ECLAC’s executive director participated in the Forum of America University Rectors 2015, where she pointed out that a structural change is needed in order to diversify the productive structure of countries and to strengthen the knowledge and technology industries.

In a presentation called Vision of Latin America and the Caribbean: education for structural change and equality, Barcena highlighted the need to link closely the educational system with the labour market. The reason is that in our region, employment develops mostly in areas with low wage and productivity.

In addition she stated that the quality of superior education must be improved and other alternatives of non-university education must be developed due to the large regional gap between labour supply and demand.

During the Forum of Civil Society and Social Actors she spoke about economic growth and social inclusion to ratify the need of replacing the extraction dynamic for the sustainability culture.

Barcena also stated that social agreements must be created to develop the structural transformations that Latin American countries require. Among these she highlighted tax and labour agreements and broad agreements in the productive and investment sectors, as well as moving forward in natural resources governance.

A new equation among the State, the market and society is needed in order to transform the culture of privilege into the culture of equality.

Source: http://www.prensa-latina.cu/