UN's LatAm agency urges financial stability pact for developed nations

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Tuesday urged developed countries to forge a pact on global financial stability to avoid financial crises that affect the entire world. The UN agency also called on developed nations to diversify their investments in Latin America to contribute to the region's economic and social upswing. The proposed pact was put forward by ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena during the opening of the Regional Meeting of the Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing, held in Chile's capital Santiago, where the agency is headquartered. Barcena said the Latin America and Caribbean region does not want aid, rather "what we want is for developed countries to make a real pact for financial stability to avoid repeating the crash of 2008, which was provoked by the self-regulated market and affected everyone, even those who did not cause the crisis." Latin America and Caribbean countries today have their own strategies and policies for promoting development, she said, and the region aims to strengthen its own mechanisms to help fund development, counting on a broad network of regional and sub-regional banks that it is considering extending. Additionally, the majority of the region's countries are of average income and therefore the flow of official development assistance is falling, she said. According to Barcena, what the region needs is an effective global pact, stronger regional financial institutions and more productive investments. The meeting concludes Wednesday with a session in which participants will share their ideas and visions with experts and members of non-governmental organizations.