The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will celebrate its Thirtieth Session in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 28 June to 2 July 2004, with participation from some 300 delegates from the 41 member and seven associate states involved in this regional United Nations Commission, along with representatives from United Nations specialized bodies, non-governmental organizations and special guests. Official delegations will include ministers of education, the economy, labour, planning and foreign relations, along with other authorities from the different countries.
On this occasion, ECLAC will present the document Productive Development in Open Economies to the region's governments. This report analyzes the best strategies for achieving the region's sustainable development.
This meeting, ECLAC's most important, takes place every two years. During the session, member states examine the progress of activities during the previous two years and approve the work plan for the next period. Moreover, it offers an opportunity for them to discuss issues important to the development of the region's countries.
The meeting will start on 28 June at 9:30 am with the first sessions at the Hotel Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The presiding officers will then be elected to direct the work during the session period, chaired as usual by the host country. At 10:00 am, José Luis Machinea, ECLAC Executive Secretary, will present the document Productive Development in Open Economies, after which debate will open.
On Tuesday 29, the following parallel meetings will take place:
ECLAC Sessional Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development
Presiding Officers of the Regional Council for Planning of the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES).
On Wednesday 30 in the morning the seminar Education Financing and Management in Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC-UNESCO) will take place, followed in the afternoon by the Committee on Cooperation among Developing Countries and Regions. Throughout the day a special session on Sustainable Development will take place.
José Luis Machinea, Sila M. Calderón Serra, Governor of Puerto Rico, Commonwealth territory of the United States, and the President of the 29th Session, held in Brazil in 2002, will officially open the Thirtieth Session on Thursday 1 July at 9:00 am at the Hotel Caribe Hilton, San Jerónimo Room.
The high-level seminar, entitled Productive Development in Open Economies, will begin immediately afterward. It includes the following panels:
Major challenges to productive development in Latin America and the Caribbean
Productive development and international integration
Technological innovation: the motor driving productive development
Employment in the context of productive development
Challenges and opportunities in the framework of the Free Trade Agreement between Central America and the United States.
Final resolutions will be adopted on Friday 2, after general debate.
