Response to the world crisis.

• Author: Cattivelli, Adrian
• Position: OAS

DURING VARIOUS MEETINGS, conferences, and expositions on the subject, the OAS and its member states recently analyzed the world economic crisis and debated the impact it would have on the hemisphere.

The topic was the subject of debate in a session of the Lecture Series of the Americas, in which the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, and the president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Alberto Moreno, each spoke about the challenges the crisis presents for the region.

Also, in the month of January, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Barcena, spoke to the plenary of the OAS Permanent Council, made up of representatives of 34 member states and warned of the need to redefine the role of the State and its participation in the reactivation of the process of economic growth.

Barcena said that in order to apply counter-cyclical fiscal policies, it would be necessary "to redefine the role of the State in the twenty-first century," as well as the interaction of the State with the market and with citizens "so that the actions of the State will be truly at the service of development."

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"There was a time when financial and economic growth was confused with development," she said. "Now is the time to reorient our...