Peru participated in the 36th "Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean" (ECLAC) opening session in Mexico on Tuesday.
The event, inaugurated by hosting nation's President Enrique Peña Nieto along with ECLAC's Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena, among other senior authorities, will run thru Friday May 27th.
"Today I ratify Mexico's commitment to integration and sustainable development of our region, so that the Americas will become a hemisphere of inclusion and prosperity," Peña Nieto expressed.
At the opening of the gathering in the Los Pinos Official Residence, other speakers included the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Alicia Bárcena, Peruvian Minister of Development and Social Inclusion Paola Bustamante and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (in a video message).
"ECLAC's work is indispensable for building a region united around well-being, inclusive development and prosperity," he added.
The Mexico's top official recognized the important work of fellow-citizen Alicia Bárcena, at the head of the United Nations regional organization.
"Being equal to grow and at the same time growing to be equal. That is ECLAC's mission. It is the aspiration that our societies share and it is the reason why we will continue working jointly and progressing together," he said.
Accompanied by 11 Mexican ministers and other authorities, he noted "the participation of society, the consistency among public policies, a rights-based approach, a commitment to certainty to create value and a sustainable vision of development are essential elements for achieving the development with equality that ECLAC promotes."
In addition to thanking the President and the Mexican authorities for hosting ECLAC's most important biennial meeting, Bárcena recognized that the region and world are going through a complex economic situation in the framework of a development model that has profound imbalances, which motivated the international community's approval of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development last year.
"Mexico and the region played a central role in the process of negotiating the 2030 Agenda, and we know that they will do so in its follow-up," she said.
Meanwhile, Paola Bustamante, the Peruvian Minister of Development and Social Inclusion, stated that Peru "gave the broadest possible political support to the 2030 Agenda, not only because it participated actively in the process of its definition but also because it constitutes a political and above all ethical commitment to efforts for the well-being of our populations."
Peru hosted ECLAC's last session in 2014 and formally turned over the presidency of the Commission to Mexico for the next biennium. Alicia Bárcena gave special thanks to the South American country for its leadership in the last two years.