President of Peru Calls for Building More Egalitarian Societies to Take on the Challenges of Globalization

Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski called on Latin American countries to build more egalitarian societies that will allow them to face the challenges of globalization, during a speech today at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.

The Peruvian leader said that social reform must be implemented with education and the elimination of racism as central elements and to confront the deep inequality affecting the region.

During his speech, the Peruvian president urged countries in the region to defend multilateralism rather than the economic and human protectionism that has been promoted by some industrialized countries.

He emphasized that, in the face of the challenges posed by globalization and other phenomena such as climate change, “the only solution is multilateralism, because if we cannot be in agreement, we will not progress.”

President Kuczynski called on the region to send a message to the world and “show that multilateralism is strong and does work.”

In this regard, he stressed that integration in Latin America is fundamental and that mechanisms like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and the Pacific Alliance are crucial contributions in that sense.

The leader acknowledged that the new global context will entail changes that Latin America must be prepared for, but stated that he was optimistic regarding the region’s potential.

“Latin America has been through so many difficult journeys and disappointments that its people are courageous, and there is a young population in most countries. These conditions help adaptation,” he remarked.

The President of Peru was welcomed to ECLAC by Antonio Prado, the Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations regional body, who delivered a greeting on behalf of the Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena.

In his speech, Antonio Prado recalled that in the recently released annual report entitled Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy, ECLAC affirms that we are facing a crisis of hyper-globalization, that is, globalization that lacks the necessary governance to mitigate its disruptive effects in social and economic realms.

“To overcome the deficiencies of current globalization, we must all work together to build agreements and institutions that promote effective macroeconomic coordination, a change in the patterns of production and consumption in order to achieve sustainability, and fair rules for trade  and investment,” the senior ECLAC official stated.

Prado added that “we must also close spaces for tax evasion and avoidance and for the destabilizing effects of financial globalization. This is the only way for us to progress toward a more inclusive and sustainable form of globalization with greater social legitimacy,” he indicated.

In closing, he stated that “reaching agreements in all of these spheres is a complex but essential challenge