Economic survey of the Caribbean, 2006-2007

This survey provides an overview of the macroeconomic performance of countries of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC) for the year 2006 and their outlook for 2007. The report consists of three chapters. The first one provides a regional analysis of the main economic indicators from a comparative perspective. The second chapter deals with two selected topics of particular relevance for the economic development of Caribbean countries, namely remittances and migration, and natural resources dependency. The last chapter presents country briefs with the main macroeconomic dev…

Suriname: the impact of the May 2006 floods on sustainable livelihoods

This assessment of the socio-economic impact of the May 2006 floods in Suriname was carried out at the request of the Government of Suriname, through the Ministry of Regional Development, by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Ministry organized a team of local counterparts to work with the ECLAC team which involved stakeholders from government and non-governmental organizations. The ECLAC team visited Suriname in September and November 2006…

A plan of action for the further integration of associate member countries in the United Nations system including its specialized agencies in the economic and social sphere

Report of the Sixth Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

New directions for development banking in the Caribbean: financing to take advantage of unlimited supplies of labour skills and entrepreneurship

Abstract In the early 1980s, within the wider structural adjustment and liberalisation framework, financial sector reform were initiated to allow greater facility of market forces in the pricing and allocation of financial resources. The sector has been increasingly liberalised since then with subsequent on-going reform addressing the legislative and regulatory frameworks. The on-going reforms have sought to improve resource flows for productive investment. Nevertheless, there are persistent fractures and imperfections in the credit market. Development banking seeks to define and reso…

Migration: international organisation for migration/ ECLAC workshop on migration data collection, management and sharing in the caribbean

Anuario Estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe 2006 = Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2006

En la presente edición del Anuario estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe 2006 se mantienen los cambios de contenido y de diseño introducidos en el año 2005. El propósito es responder a las nuevas exigencias de los investigadores que analizan la situación económica y social de la región e incorporar los avances tecnológicos que modifi can la difusión y el uso de la información estadística. El Anuario cuenta con cuatro capítulos. En el primer capítulo se presentan los indicadores demográfi cos y sociales, que refl ejan el esfuerzo especial realizado para incluir la dimensión de género en la…

Report on formulating public policies for the sustainable use of natural resources: the case of biofuels

Model for analysing the social and economic impact of child undernutrition in Latin America

At present, Latin America is in a paradox, as the effects of both extremes of poor nutrition, obesity, and undernutrition, are present simultaneously in a region where the food supply is much greater than it has been historically and in most cases exceeds the population's dietary energy requirements. The prevalence of undernutrition is not a mere accident in the region, but a reflection of huge disparities in income and the lack of priority given to food and nutrition issues on the countries' political agendas. Aside from …

The millennium development goals: strategic implications for the Latin American and Caribbean statistical systems

This document was prepared by José Luis Cervera-Ferri, Consultant, ECLAC, and Hubert Escaith, ECLAC Statistics and Economic Projections Division, based on José L. Cervera Ferri, El seguimiento de los objetivos de desarrollo del Milenio: oportunidades y retos para los Sistemas Nacionales de Estadística, Serie No.39, Estudios estadsiticos y propectivos (LC/L.2458-P) Santiago, Chile, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), December 2005. The views expressed in this document, which has been reproduced without formal editing, are those of the authors and do not necessar…

Best practices in defence of competition in Argentina and Brazil: useful aspects for Central America

Developing countries with a relatively long expertise in competition policy, such as Argentina and Brazil, may provide a very valuable point of reference for developing countries that have acquired more recently a competition legal and institutional framework. Among the recommendations that can be derived from Argentina and Brazil for other more recent comers to the competition institutional arena are: i) the importance of having a single and independent body in charge of applying the competition law; ii) the need for competition policy and the judiciary system to coordinate their acti…

Coordination of public expenditure in transport infrastructure: analysis and policy perspectives for Latin America

Multinational transport infrastructure (MTI) projects are fraught with coordination issues. This paper contributes by identifying the key issues necessary for effective MTI coordination, analyzing them using economic theory and putting them into perspective within the framework of major ongoing coordination efforts for MTI in Europe and Latin America. Specifically, this paper carries out the following. First, after mentioning the importance of transport infrastructure for growth and integration, we describe the characteristics of transport networks that make coordination essential. Second, we …

Implications for the use of biofuels with special reference to the Caribbean

Korean OFDI: investment strategies and corporate motivations for investing abroad

International flows of capital in the form of foreign direct investment have become an important means of promoting economic development in many countries. The spread of globalization and the activity of transnational corporations have been driving forces behind these flows have already been adequately analyzed. An important new phenomenon of recent decades is the rapid increase in the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) flows from developing countries. Much less attention has been paid to outward investment by developing countries, mainly because it was negligible until recently.OFDI fro…

Report on maritime transport and the environment for Latin America

This report presents information on the environmental impact of vessels during their general operation. It is shown that the emissions from vessels can substantially contribute to local air quality problems over land and also impact the climate change process. Up to now, the contribution of the maritime sector to air quality problems in Latin American and Caribbean coastal cities has received little or no attention. Studies for the United States and Europe show that the contribution of this sector may however be significant. Given the persistence of air quality problems in Latin America, it ap…

A system of indicators for monitoring social cohesion in Latin America

This document was produced under the supervision of Juan Carlos Feres, Chief of the Social Statistics Unit, Statistics and Economic Projections Division, ECLAC, and was written by Pablo Villatoro, Consultant in the Division. Marcelo Miño and Elizabeth Rivera both contributed to this study, while Carlos Vergara and Ernesto Ottone made valuable comments and suggestions. The production of the document was funded by the EUROsociAL Programme of the European Commission. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean wishes to thank those whose financial cooperation made the production a…

Economic growth with equity: challenges for Latin America

The publication of this book was made possible by the contributions of the Ford Foundation and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The funds of the latter institution are managed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). This is an ECLAC and Palgrave Macmillan copublication. Preface From time to time, Latin American countries experience growth spurts, like in the period 2004-05, when the region achieved the highest biennial growth rate of the past 25 years. However, sustained growth has been elusive in the last quarter …

Proposed work programme for the Caribbean Sea Commission

Sustainable bioenergy: a framework for decision makers

PrefacioEn nuestro primer documento, ONUEnergía se centró en El desafío de la Energía para Alcanzar los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio . Señalamos que los servicios energéticos disponibles no han logrado satisfacer las necesidades de los más pobres del mundo, con 2.400 millones de personas que recurren a la biomasa tradicional para sus necesidades energéticas, y 1.600 millones sin acceso alguno a la electricidad. Los compromisos básicos para la gente pobre no se pueden alcanzar sin un enfoque mucho más centrado hacia los servicios energéticos.Al mismo tiempo, se ha visto un fuerte au…

Innovation and technology policy (ITP) for catching up: a three phase life cycle framework for industrializing economies

This paper outlines a dynamic, medium/long term Innovation and Technology Policy framework for industrializing economies directed to simulate innovation and to contribute to the eventual creation of high impact innovative entrepreneurial clusters. The paper is predicated on the assumption that while cluster creation policies are possible in many contexts they requires adoption of a System Evolutionary (S/E) perspective to Innovation and Technology Policy. Given the current 'entrepreneurial phase' of the ICT Revolution, support of 'Innovative SMEs' should be one of the axes …