The Executive Secretary of the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, will hold a bilateral meeting with the German Foreign Affairs Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, during her 48 hours trip to Berlin, where she will also meet with Latin American entrepreneurs residing in Germany.
The meeting with Minister Steinmeier will take place on Wednesday 6 July at 6:40 p.m. local time in the site of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Auswärtiges Amt). Both authorities will discuss several issues of common interest that take part of the strategic cooperation between ECLAC and the Federal Government of Germany, focused in fostering development in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Later, at 7:00 p.m., the Executive Secretary of this United Nations regional organism will participate in the event marking 100 years of the Lateinamerikaverein, the most important German network for industry players with business interests in Latin America and the Caribbean, where she will deliver a speech.
Also, on Thursday 7 July Bárcena will be the keynote speaker at the colloquium “The future of Latin America: risks and opportunities for German companies”, organized by the Latin American Initiative of German Entrepreneurs (Lateinamerika-Initiative der Deutschen Wirtschaft, LAI) and the Group of Ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC).
In her presentation the highest authority of the United Nations’ organism will mention the economic development of Latin America and the Caribbean and the structural change needed in the region to fulfill the commitments of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Ambassador of Honduras and Pro Tempore President of the GRULAC, Ramón Custodio, and the President of LAI, Reinhold Festge, will also participate in the colloquium
Germany is one the 45 Member States of ECLAC since 2005.
ECLAC and the German Government, represented by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) and Capacity Building International (InWent), maintain a strategic alliance based on a cooperation programme aimed to strengthen the capacities of Latin American governments to formulate, implement and evaluate their sustainable development public policies.
“ECLAC and BMZ notably complement each other as strategic allies. ECLAC provides a platform for the political dialogue in Latin America and the Caribbean, generates knowledge and advises countries with public policies on economic, social and environmental matters. On the other hand, the German cooperation not only supports ECLAC in this mission, but also gives feedback to its bilateral projects with knowledge and ECLAC’s recommendations, thanks to its wide contact networks and experience”, Alicia Bárcena has said.
The cooperation programme includes areas such as planning, management of natural resources and measures to face climate change, fiscal policies, access to financing and social cohesion.
In January 2016, ECLAC Executive Secretary and the Deputy Director General for Latin America at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Christiane Bögemann-Hagedorn, signed in Berlin a cooperation agreement for the period 2016-2018 that will be dedicated to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the region.
The first joint cooperation activity between ECLAC and Germany dates from 1979. Since then both parties have worked together in several projects related to the socio-economic and environmental development of the Latin American and Caribbean countries.
