Off the wire
• Airport staff trained to detect human trafficking in Britain  • Hong Kong stocks close up 0.02 pct by midday  • Chinese firm files for compensation over suspended Mexico rail project  • 10 children died at hospital in Bangladesh  • Urgent: Malaysia's federal court announced guilty verdict over opposition leader Anwar's sodomy case  • Unasur seeks to reorient drug policy, decriminalize drug use  • Brazil's economy foresees zero growth in 2015  • Australian property prices rise 6.8 pct in 2014: official data  • 2nd LD-Writethru-China Focus: January inflation at 5-year low, prompting further policy easing  • China imposes record anti-trust fine on Qualcomm  
You are here: 　 Home

LatAm urged to diversify output, prioritize educational investment

Xinhua, February 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

Latin America should diversify its production to generate sustained economic growth while prioritizing investment on human resources, a World Bank official said Monday.

Alberto Rodriguez, director of the World Bank for Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, made the remarks at a press conference that highlights a gathering of directors from both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be held in October in Peru's capital Lima, and the events leading up to it.

Taking China as an example, Rodriguez said the Asian giant substantially invests in training of labor and human resources, and in technological innovations, with an eye to improving productivity across all sectors, and promoting social justice and equality.

Latin America, he said, should not be expecting a boom in commodities to boost regional economies as the price of such exports as minerals and oil are subject to market fluctuations, and their ups and downs can disrupt development.

Instead, he recommended that the governments of Latin American nations consolidate economic policies that lead to general well-being.

"The region's challenge is to prioritize short- to long-term investment ... in infrastructure and education," said Rodriguez.

In coming weeks, Lima will host seminars and debates over global economic development as part of a series of events leading up to the 2015 annual meeting, said the official.

The first of these events will take place on Tuesday with the presentation of the 2015 World Development Report titled "Mind, Society and Behavior."

The annual meeting, which is hosted for the first time by a Latin American country since the Rio gathering in 1967, is expected to draw between 10,000 and 12,000 participants from 181 nations, including high-ranking officials, business leaders and representatives of non-governmental organizations. Endi