The Ecuadorian Deputy Foreign Minister Leonardo Arízaga, today opened the XIII Meeting of Coordinators of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in which he stated that the organization is committed to a work based on respect and mutual benefit cooperation issues .
"In CELAC will work on issues of cooperation based on respect and mutual benefit," noted Arízaga at the headquarters of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), where the event takes place, the Foreign Ministry reported.
Arízaga said Unasur "is the home of all member countries of the CELAC", whose appointment today will discuss, among others, the group's relationship with China.
The appointment of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, whose economy is the third largest region globally, according to the Foreign Ministry, will end next Friday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador recalled that CELAC holds meetings at the highest level with the European Union and China, while exploring strengthen its relations with Russia and India as well as Korea, Japan and Turkey, among others.
Arízaga, whose country holds the rotating presidency of CELAC, said this week that the meeting allowed to review the "Agenda 2020", a regional plan for the next five years aims to combat poverty, improve infrastructure investment and strengthen cooperation among member countries.
He recalled that this agenda has as main axes the "elimination of extreme poverty in Latin America", the main objective of the region in the next five years.
The plan also aims to significantly increase investments in infrastructure and regional cooperation in education, science and technology.
Arízaga mentioned that Latin America currently invests 2.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in infrastructure, when that category should be at least 5.5%.
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