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Follow-up and Implementation: Mandates |
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SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH: Private Sector Growth |
MANDATES |
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MANDATES
Support ICT intellectual property protection and entrepreneurship. (Regional Agenda for Digital Transformation, IX Summit of the Americas, Los Angeles, 2022).
Expand opportunities and capacity for businesses, particularly micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and entrepreneurs, to participate in e-commerce, utilize digital technologies or tools, and logistics services encouraging free competition to improve their operations and develop digital skills for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and access to markets to become more competitive. (Regional Agenda for Digital Transformation, IX Summit of the Americas, Los Angeles, 2022).
To advance the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forest and Land Use, national deforestation and conservation commitments, and regional efforts to halt and reverse deforestation and conserve, sustainably manage, and use ecosystems, we commit to strengthen our efforts to:
b. Develop national plans and new initiatives, as appropriate, with the participation of civil society, the private sector, and other stakeholders, to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation and to conserve or protect 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030 (30x30), aligned with each country’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) and net zero emissions target, as applicable; (Our Sustainable Green Future, IX Summit of the Americas, Los Angeles, 2022).
To accelerate measures on climate change adaptation, taking into account different national circumstances, we intend to:
c. Enhance environmental education, through research and active and inclusive participation from all stakeholders to build capacities for climate change adaptation and mitigation for current and future generations, including youth, indigenous peoples, persons of African descent, civil society, women’s organizations, the private sector, policymakers, practitioners, and persons working in related industries; (Our Sustainable Green Future, IX Summit of the Americas, Los Angeles, 2022).
To promote economic growth with equity and social inclusion by strengthening cooperatives, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, including cultural industries, in addition to grassroots economic initiatives and other production units, innovation, and competitiveness in the countries of the Americas. (Poverty, Inequality, and Inequity, Cartagena, 2012).
We recognise that there are significant differences in the levels of development and the size of our respective economies. Accordingly, we must continue to make a particular effort to promote sustainable development in small and vulnerable economies of the Hemisphere by enhancing their competitiveness, human and institutional capacity-building, financial and physical infrastructure, as well as the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the development of the business sector and other productive economic sectors, including tourism. We will also continue to support the national development efforts of middle-income countries to achieve the objectives of the Millennium Declaration, emphasising the reduction of poverty and the eradication of extreme poverty. We will work, as appropriate, in coordination with the relevant international institutions and organisations to improve the effectiveness of aid and development cooperation with middle-income countries. In this context, we also recognise the challenges faced by the land-locked countries of the Hemisphere. (Declaration of Port of Spain, 2009).
To reduce poverty and hunger, eradicate extreme poverty, create dignified and decent work, and raise the standard of living of all our people, we must achieve higher levels of business development and sustainable economic growth with equity. Subject to the domestic laws of each country, we will continue to promote diversified economic activity in the energy, transport, tourism, communications, services, financial services and agricultural sectors. We are committed to facilitating investment and public-private partnerships in infrastructure and other relevant sectors in order to promote business development, economic growth and social development with equity. We will continue to promote increased corporate social responsibility and improved competitiveness, to which the Americas Competitiveness Forum in Chile in 2009 will contribute. (Declaration of Port of Spain, 2009).
We recognise that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises constitute a strategic force to generate new employment, improve the quality of life, and have a positive impact on development and economic growth while promoting equity and social inclusion. We also recognise the contribution to the economy and to the creation of decent work by productive organisations, in accordance with each nation’s characteristics, such as cooperatives and other production units. In this context, we call on international and regional financial institutions, as appropriate, to increase their efforts to promote our economies’ development and growth by increasing lending and significantly expanding access to credit by 2012. (Declaration of Port of Spain, 2009).
We emphasize the importance of the participation of the business sector in achieving our objectives. We recognize, in particular, that micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, providers of goods and services, constitute a fundamental component for economic growth, job creation, and reduction of poverty and social inequality in our countries (Declaration of Mar del Plata, 2005).
Sustained economic growth, with equity and social inclusion, is an indispensable condition to create jobs, fight extreme poverty, and overcome inequality in the Hemisphere. To achieve these ends, it is necessary to improve transparency and the investment climate in our countries, build human capital, encourage increased incomes and improve their distribution, promote corporate social responsibility, and foster a spirit of entrepreneurship as well as strong business activity (Declaration of Mar del Plata, 2005).
This reform has the following objectives, among others: to contribute to the prevention and rapid resolution of financial crises, which particularly harm developing countries in the region; to enhance financing for development; to combat poverty; and to strengthen democratic governance. We stress the need for multilateral financial institutions, in providing policy advice and financial support, to work on the basis of sound, nationally owned paths of reform that the respective countries have identified with, and which take into account the needs of the poor and measures to reduce poverty. To achieve our sustainable development objectives, we need international and multilateral institutions that are more efficient, democratic, and accountable. We call upon the international and regional financial institutions to strengthen coordination of their activities so that they can respond more effectively to the long-term development needs of the countries of the region to achieve measurable results in their efforts to eradicate poverty through more effective use of all available development financing sources. For the poorest and least creditworthy countries, we support increased multilateral development banks (MDB) funding provided as performance-based grants (Declaration of Mar del Plata, 2005).
We will support the efforts that the multilateral development banks make with the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises as fundamental factors of economic growth and we will welcome the increased efforts of the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and other regional development banks to create the enabling environment for strengthening such enterprises (Declaration of Mar del Plata, 2005).
We emphasize the importance of the participation of the private sector in achieving our objectives. We recognize that micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises constitute a fundamental component for economic growth, employment creation, and poverty reduction in our countries. We will support micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises through policies and programs that facilitate their consolidation and incorporation into the formal sector, allow their effective access to markets and to government procurement, and, inter alia, promote investment in and training of human resources, and facilitate access to credit, business development services, and new technologies in order to reduce administrative costs. Additionally, we will promote greater international cooperation in order to foster the sharing of best practices for the development of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (Declaration of Nuevo León, 2004).
We will continue working to reform the international financial architecture with the following objectives, among others: to contribute to the prevention and rapid resolution of financial crises, which particularly harm developing countries in the region; to enhance financing for development; to combat poverty; and to strengthen democratic governance. We support the efforts of borrowing countries to work with the private sector to explore new approaches to reduce the burden of debt service during periods of economic downturns. We applaud the leadership of countries in the region in including collective action clauses in their international bond issues. We call upon the international and regional financial institutions to enhance coordination of their activities so that they can respond more effectively to the long-term development needs of the countries of the region to achieve measurable results in their efforts to eradicate poverty through more effective use of all available development financing sources (Declaration of Nuevo León, 2004).
We recognize that legally secure property rights are one of the essential elements for economic growth, since proof of ownership helps people to obtain loans and start businesses (Declaration of Nuevo León, 2004).
Recognizing the central role that businesses of all sizes play in the creation of prosperity and the flow and maintenance of trade and investment in the Hemisphere, and, noting that businesses can make an important contribution to sustainable development and increasing access to opportunities, including the reduction of inequalities in the communities in which they operate, and taking into consideration the increasing expectations of our citizens and civil society organizations that businesses carry out their operations in a manner consistent with their social and environmental responsibilities: (Plan of Action Québec, 2001).
Recognizing that economic growth is fundamental to overcoming economic disparities and strengthening democracy in the Hemisphere, and that in order to achieve sustained economic growth and political and social stability, it is necessary to face the primary challenge that confronts the Hemisphere - the eradication of poverty and inequity - that requires an integrated and focused approach, which promotes better competitiveness, equity enhancing trade and more equitable access to opportunities, taking into account the difficulties that the countries of the region face, including those under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, in obtaining financing for their development; and that it is necessary to take measures at the national and hemispheric levels in order to create a positive environment for business, maximize the benefits of orderly migration, minimize the effects of economic volatility and natural disasters and encourage social stability and mobility in order to promote a more equitable distribution of the benefits of economic growth: (Plan of Action Québec, 2001).
Ensure that a significant number of the 50 million micro, small and medium size enterprises in the Hemisphere, whose owners and workers are persons with low incomes, especially women from these enterprises, have access to financial services by the year 2000. (Plan of Action Santiago, 1998).
II.3 Sustainable Cities and Communities Recognizing that the primary challenges to the attainment of sustainable development in this area include:
Incorporation of the poorest and most disadvantaged sectors of the population into the productive process by, inter alia, creating jobs through public and private investment and expanding and enhancing access to credit and to environmentally sound technologies;
Growth in job creation in small and micro-enterprises by simplifying paperwork, bureaucracy, and operations that affect them and by promoting the economic competitiveness and environmental efficiency of these production units in urban as well as rural areas;
Narrowing of the housing unit gap and expansion of basic infrastructure services through a comprehensive approach to the problem of rapid urban growth, including the use of clean, safe technologies;
Promotion of the quality of life in cities and communities, taking into account their spatial, economic, social, and environmental circumstances; and
Assurance of the most efficient and least polluting industrial and transportation practices so as to reduce adverse environmental impact and promote sustainable development in cities and communities, (Plan of Action Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 1996).
