Fernández Calls for Joint Action to Check the Effects of the Global Economic Crisis

Dr. Leonel Fernández, President of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and Fundación Democracia y Desarrollo (Funglode), has asked the world’s main economic powers to adopt a unified policy to address the damaging effects of the global economic crisis, which he said has plunged Latin America and the Caribbean into uncertainty with regard to the future.

Fernández, former Dominican Republic president, who has spent his time in
Paris fulfilling a packed agenda in his capacity as European Union–Latin America and Caribbean (EU-LAC) Foundation president, noted that the United States, the European Union, and China all face an uncertain and vague situation owing to the lack of clear policies within the framework of the G20.

Elaborating on the subject, Fernández stated that this absence of clarity from the world’s economic superpowers has left Latin America and the Caribbean – a region with
a hyper-connected and interdependent economy – suspended in uncertainty.

“When we have the three main economic powers in a vague
and uncertain situation toward the future and a lack of clear policies within the G20, we in Latin America can take any measures we want, but a hyper-connected and interdependent economy depends not just on us but on the global environment,” he noted.

In this vein, the former political leader highlighted the importance of the work done by the EU-LAC Foundation, a body created to transform the strategic partnership that has existed since 1999 between the EU,
Latin America, and the Caribbean by establishing linkages of exchange between East and West, carried out through action plans designed for each country.

The remarks from the former Dominican Head of State came during his appearance in the panel “Redefining partnerships to support inclusive and sustainable growth” at the International Economic Forum on Latin America and the Caribbean, held this week in Paris. Fernández’s attendance at the
event was accompanied by that of dozens of politicians, representatives of international bodies, businessmen, economists, and academics, including Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) president Luis Alberto Moreno.

The panel included Alonso Prat-Gay, Public Finance and Revenues minister of Argentina; Santiago Peña Palacios, Revenues minister of Paraguay; Rebeca Grynspan, secretary general of the Ibero American Conference; and
Gabriel Baracatt, executive director of the Fundación Avina. It was moderated by Mario Pezzini, director of the Development Centre at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which organized the Forum alongside the IDB and the French Ministries of the Economy, Industry and Digital Sector, and Finance and Public Accounts.

Like Fernández, the panel’s other participants discussed the Latin America region’s relationship with the
world’s main economic powers, emphasizing the recession affecting the biggest economies worldwide and its repercussions on less developed countries.