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ECLAC presented today at its headquarters in Chile the first report on Productive Development Policies (PDP), as a contribution to reinforce inclusive and sustainable growth in the countries of the region.
José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), said this is a new contribution from the UN organization in a world undergoing accelerated transformation due to new technologies.
We live, said the official, in a region mired in three development traps: little capacity to grow, high inequality and low social mobility, poor institutional and governance performance.
Latin America and the Caribbean had an average growth of 0.9 points in the last decade, even lower than the 2 percent of the lost decade of the 1980s, and in these conditions it is difficult to create quality jobs, reduce poverty and finance development.
Part of the problem, he said, is low investment, but the most important reason lies in poor productivity, and he gave as an example that in the area it takes four hours of work to produce the same amount of work achieved in one hour in developed economies.
Furthermore, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, known as MSMEs, represent 80 percent of total employment in Latin America and the Caribbean, but have much less productive capacity compared to large facilities. This impacts not only in the national growth rate, but also wage inequality.
Salazar-Xirinachs pointed out that this is where the importance of this study lies, which aims to be annual and where the regional reality is analyzed and recommendations and action programs are proposed.
The document presented this Thursday consists of five chapters and makes a total of 80 recommendations, proposes 14 guidelines and seven axes of action, among which is giving importance to the interregional differences of each country.
After the description of the study, in which Marco Llinás, director of the productive development division of ECLAC, also participated, a seminar was held with three discussion panels attended by experts, officials and representatives of the academic world. (PL).
