Exposición del Sr. Enrique V. Iglesias, Secretario Ejecutivo de la Comisión Económica para América Latina en la VIII Reunión Ordinaria del Consejo Latinoamericano del Sistema Económico Latinoamericano (SELA) = Statement by the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America, Mr. Enrique V. Iglesias, at the Eighth Regular Session of the Latin American Council of the Latin American Economic System (SELA)

En su exposición el Sr. Iglesias se refiere a la gran crisis de los años ochenta y reflexiona sobre las políticas antirrecesivas: la colaboración internacional y la cooperación regional; y sobre el nuevo enfoque del desarrollo latinoamericano.

Meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Caribbean Planners Network (CPN)

This report summarises discussions and presentations on the following agenda items: the Caribbean Planners Network (CPN); website and the CPN online newsletter. Guidelines for submission of material to the website, the concept, content of and approach to the newsletter, and guidelines for theme-based articles are among the areas covered. Annexes include a list of action items for follow up, and the summary of the preparatory discussions for the Istanbul+5/Habitat meeting.

Note on Meeting of Council of Ministers of the East Caribbean Common Market

Comentarios sobre la 10a Reunion del Consejo de Ministros del Mercado Comun del Caribe Oriental (MCCO). Incluye en anexos la posicion del MCCO sobre algunos puntos de la agenda

Note on the Tenth Meeting of the CARIFTA Council of Ministers

Comentarios sobre la 10a Reunion del Cosejo de Ministros de CARIFTA. El enfasis estuvo en los siguientes puntos de la agenda: a).la posicion presente y futura de los paises menos desarrollados de CARIFTA en el movimiento de integracion regional; b).la relacion entre los paises de CARIFTA y la Comunidad Economica Europea; c).el Arancel Externo Comun de CARIFTA y d).finalizacion del Esquema para Armonizacion de Incentivos Fiscales a la Industria

Main conclusions of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Council of Ministers Special Session, Montego Bay, 7-10 July 1980

Nota sobre la Reunion Especial del Consejo de Ministros del Grupo ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) sobre cooperacion intra ACP.

The role of the State and the quality of the public sector

Sectoral policies make explicit and implicit assumptions about the behaviour and capabilities of the agents (such as dynamic responses to market signals, demand-led assistance, collaborative efforts, participation in financing); which we consider to be rather unrealistic. Because of this lack of realism, policies that aim to be neutral often turn out to be highly exclusive. They fail to give sufficient importance to the special features of the sector -with its high climatic, biological and commercial risks and its slow adaptation- or to the fact that those who take decisions in agriculture are now mostly in an inferior position because of their incomes below the poverty line, their inadequate training, their traditions based on centuries of living in precarious conditions, and their geographical location in marginal areas, far from infrastructure and with only a minimum of services and sources of information. These people have only scanty and imperfect access to the markets which, according to the prevailing model, should govern decisions and the (re);distribution of the factors of production. In our opinion, this explains the patchy and lower-than-expected growth registered by the sector after the reforms to promote the liberalization of markets and external openness in the region. In view of the results of the application of the new model, it may be wondered whether Latin America can afford a form of development which excludes over half of its agricultural producers; what the alternatives are; and what costs and benefits each of them offers in terms of production and monetary, social, spatial and other aspects. The article outlines the changes in policies and their results at the aggregate level, summarizes the arguments usually put forward to explain agricultural performance in the region, and proposes a second set of explanations based on a description of the agents and the responses that may be expected from them, contrasting the latter with the supposedly neutral nature of the policies.