ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, and Cuba’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, signed the agreement for the organization’s Thirty-seventh session, which will be held on May 7-11.

The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, met today with the Cuban Minister for Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, at ECLAC’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile, where they signed an agreement confirming that Cuba will be the host country of ECLAC’s thirty-seventh session, which is the regional organization’s most important biennial gathering and which will be held on May 7-11 in Havana.

The designation of Cuba was enthusiastically endorsed by ECLAC’s member countries at the conclusion of the work carried out during the Thirty-sixth session, held from May 23 to May 27, 2016 in Mexico City.

The session is the United Nations regional commission’s most important intergovernmental meeting in terms of orienting its work. As such, it offers a forum for analyzing the issues of greatest relevance to the economic and social development of the region’s countries and for examining the progress made on the Commission’s activities.

At the meeting, ECLAC will present to its 46 member countries its activities report and will share with governments a reflection on development strategy advances in the context of the 2030 Agenda’s commitments and the Sustainable Development Goals.

“For our country, it is very important to host ECLAC’s session as a great opportunity to move forward on analyzing the region’s biggest development issues in this collective space,” affirmed Minister Malmierca after the signing of the agreement.

Alicia Bárcena, meanwhile, stated that on this occasion the meeting will delve deeper into the idea and the need for equality in Latin America and the Caribbean, in line with the work carried out during its four prior sessions held in 2010 in Brasilia; in 2012 in San Salvador; in 2014 in Lima; and in 2016 in Mexico City.

“We are keeping equality at the center of our proposals and we highlight the importance of ending the culture of privilege as a central precondition for advancing toward sustainable development,” the United Nations official said.

Other participants in the meeting, in addition to Minister Malmierca, included the Cuban Ambassador to Chile, Jorge Lamadrid Mascaró, and other officials.

The complete program of ECLAC’s Thirty-seventh session, as well as general information regarding the gathering, will be available shortly on the meeting’s special website: https://periododesesiones.cepal.org/37/en

Those journalists who want to get accredited to cover the meeting can do so on the site.