SANTIAGO, Chile, CMC – The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Friday unveiled a new document analyzing areas of opportunity for boosting growth and transforming development models ahead of the two-day European Union and the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean States (CELAC) summit in Brussels on Monday.
The document identifies and analyzes areas for cooperation and investment in strategic sectors between Latin America and the Caribbean, and the European Union while offering assessments, pinpointing opportunities, and proposing work and policy agendas for expanding and deepening them in the future to achieve a sustainable and inclusive transition.
The publication is entitled “Investment and Cooperation Opportunities for Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union.”
“ECLAC has prepared this document to contribute to a better understanding of the areas of opportunity for both blocs of countries to boost growth and employment, face the enormous challenges of the current scenario, and strengthen the call for action and international cooperation to overcome limitations, seize opportunities and create hope,” said ECLAC executive secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs.
The publication urges for strengthening relations between Latin America and the Caribbean, and the European Union and analyzes 14 areas of opportunity for boosting growth and transforming development models, which could be part of the productive initiatives of the region’s countries and their territories in the framework of their constructive development policies.
These sectors include the energy transition, electromobility, the circular economy, the economy, the geographic rearrangement of production, the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry, the medical devices industry, exports of modern services enabled by Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), advanced manufacturing, gender equality and the care society, sustainable water management, sustainable tourism, e-government, and food security.
“These areas of opportunity are merely illustrative, and others could be added. All open up new opportunities for investment and growth and international cooperation and strategic partnerships,” according to the document.
It emphasizes that the European Union has trade agreements in effect with 25 Latin American and Caribbean countries, a figure that will expand to 29 countries upon the signing and entry into force of the agreement reached with MERCOSUR in 2019.
“This makes the European Union the partner from outside the region that has the largest network of agreements in the region,” ECLAs said, with the document adding that both regions are facing a turbulent international scenario marked by tensions between the United States and China, a weakened multilateral trading system, and global supply chain disruptions prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
In this context, the existing network of trade agreements is a valuable asset for both blocs since it can strengthen their respective initiatives aimed at achieving greater strategic self-sufficiency by offering export opportunities and a reliable supply of essential products.
The document stresses that boosting investment between the two blocs and bolstering productive ties can reinforce a strategic partnership that supports the region’s countries in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the European Union in strengthening its international presence.
Furthermore, it emphasizes that “in a context in which all countries – in particular developed countries with vast resources – are taking important steps to reform industrial policy, it will be essential for the region not only to scale up and implement its sectoral policies more strategically but also to forge links with the industrial policies of other countries. One way of doing this is precisely by attracting investment and cooperation.”
The document reaffirms that “it will be key to align the investment and cooperation opportunities for the European Union and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean with countries’ policy priorities for productive development and with their subnational strategies.”
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