No More Lost Decades: Opportunities From Nearshoring, the Energy Transition, and Other Drivers of Sustainable Growth

Latin America and the Caribbean is emerging from another period of slow growth, punctuated by the devastating economic consequences of the pandemic. The region's economies grew on average by 0.9% per year over the past 10 years, worse than during the notorious “lost decade” of the 1980s. Slow growth has left few resources to meet public expectations for job creation and public services, including health and education, or to invest in infrastructure to improve competitiveness. Progress fighting poverty and inequality has slowed. Political uncertainty and climate change cloud the horizon.

 Paradoxically, the region also enjoys remarkable opportunities. Its abundant mineral resources are in high demand for clean energy technologies such as batteries and electric vehicles. Meanwhile, major multinational companies are increasingly turning to the region to diversify supply chains that are overly concentrated in Asia. The US government supports that trend, seeing hemispheric integration as the key to US competitiveness and for assuring reliable supplies of strategic products ranging from medical devices to microprocessors.

To seize these opportunities, governments in Latin America and the Caribbean need new development strategies, according to the Chile-based UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). ECLAC has played a historic role in regional debates about development and economic integration, and its insights are particularly vital today.

Please join the Wilson Center’s Latin America Program on Thursday, May 9, 2024, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (ET) for a virtual discussion with the new ECLAC executive secretary, Dr. José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs. In his first official visit to Washington he will share his vision for transforming the region’s approach to inclusive, sustainable development.