Leonel Fernández Calls for Global Action in Support of Production in Latin America and the Caribbean

The former president of the Dominican Republic and President of the European-Latin America and Caribbean Foundation Union (EU-LAC Foundation), Dr. Leonel Fernández, warned that the Latin American and Caribbean region would not progress in sustainable development unless the financial sector resumes its original role of financing productive activities.

The Dominican political leader issued the warning at the closing conference of the Congress of the European
Council for Social Research on Latin America (CEISAL 2016), which took place at the University of Salamanca.

In his speech, Fernández said that the economic and political crisis that shakes several countries in the region has created some perception that Latin America and the Caribbean is completing a cycle of economic progress and political stability since the 1990”s.

In this regard, the former head of state said it is not possible to understand what
happens in Latin America and the Caribbean in the economic, social and political aspects if the problem is not analyzed in the context of the global environment.

"There has been happening a series of events in Europe, the Middle East, in
Africa, in the Asian world, and in Latin America, which are the result of the phenomenon of financialization," said Fernández, after stating that in the post-hegemonic times, in the global economy, the financial sector has emerged as the preeminent instance in all areas.

In that sense, the president of the EU-LAC Foundation recalled that originally, the financial sector played a role of intermediary between people who deposited their savings in banks and credit
needs of different productive sectors, mainly agriculture, industrial and service providers, but that situation has completely changed.

Today, the financial sector has become an end in itself and therefore instead of providing credit to the productive sector, it invests in the stock market and in companies’ shares and it also performs speculative financial transactions on forward contracts. All of which multiplies their financial assets more quickly than if they
grant loans to productive sectors ", said the president of both the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development and Liberation Party Dominican.

Fernández insisted that the fact that the financial sector has emerged as the preeminent sector of the global economy has generated a systemic crisis that continuously repeats in Latin America and the Caribbean as in the rest of the world.

He said that, "Latin America will not reach
sustainable development if a global movement doesn’t tell the financial sector to return to its original role, that is to serve as an intermediary to finance the productive sectors, which are those that really produce the wealth and prosperity of the people.”

The CEISAL, whose congress Fernández attended as president of the EU-LAC Foundation, is a network that brings together leading institutes, specialized centers and national associations of social
research on Latin America.

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