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29/10/2007 - The OECD’s Secretary General, Angel Gurría, presented the OECD Development Centre’s first Latin American Economic Outlook in Santiago de Chile on 7 November 2007.
The Outlook reviews specific economic challenges facing Latin America: improving public finances, pension reform, boosting competition in the telecoms sector and reinforcing competitiveness with the emerging Asian economies. Acknowledging better growth in the region, and especially the good performance of raw materials-exporting countries, the Outlook makes recommendations for reform in all four areas. Such reforms, say the Outlook’s authors, are needed to reduce poverty and inequality while strengthening democracy and unleashing Latin America’s huge potential for growth.
A news conference to launch the Outlook will be held at 12.30 p.m. at the United Nations Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Av. Dag Hammarskjöld 3477, Vitacura, Santiago de Chile. ECLAC Executive Secretary, José Luis Machinea, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and SEGIB Secretary General and former IADB President Enrique Iglesias will join Mr. Gurría in presenting the report.
ECLAC will also host a seminar– open to the media - from 3.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. the same day on the issues raised by the Outlook. Speakers will include Chile’s Finance Minister Andrés Velasco; Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley; and the Chief Economist of the OECD’s Development Centre, Javier Santiso.
The Outlook represents a further step in growing co-operation between Latin America and the OECD. The region is at the forefront of OECD’s policy of closer collaboration with the major emerging world economies. Chile is currently in membership discussions with the Organisation while Brazil has been offered enhanced engagement with a view to possible membership.
The Latin American Economic Outlook, available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, will be under embargo until 16.00 Paris time (12.00 noon in Santiago de Chile; 15.00 GMT) on 7 November 2007.
To obtain an electronic copy of the Outlook in advance and under embargo, journalists are invited to contact: Colm Foy, OECD Development Centre (tel: + 33 1 4524 8480). The publication will also be available on the OECD’s password-protected website for journalists once the embargo is lifted. Requests for a password should be made to the OECD’s Media Division (tel: + 33 1 4524 9700).
To register for the Latin America Outlook news conference or seminar in Santiago, journalists are invited to contact: dpisantiago@cepal.org or tel. (56-2) 210.2380 at ECLAC.
For further information, see www.oecd.org/dev/leo
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