Presidency ministers from Latin America and Iberia yesterday began a meeting aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of their social policies and improving social cohesion in the region.

Their conclusions and recommendations will be handed over to regional Presidents during the next Latin American-Iberian summit to be held in Chile in November.

During the meeting's inauguration, Costa Rican Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias remarked that although the region has consolidated its democratic systems and achieved economic growth, it has not succeeded in guaranteeing acceptable living conditions for its people.

Arias said this “contradictory reality” is evidenced by the fact that “four of 10 Latin Americans continue to live in conditions of poverty and one of 10 live and die in homelessness.”

“The region has attracted about $300 billion in investment in luxury, but one in three young people never enters high school. We export more than ever in our history, about $746 billion in 2006, but almost 50% of workers are stuck in the informal sector,” he said.

Edgardo Riveros, Secretary to the President of Chile, shared the same worries, remarking that “without social cohesion the region's democracy is threatened.”

To avoid this, it is important for countries to begin to invest their resources with better efficiency and designate them to key areas such as employment, education, equality and social protection, he said.

Miguel Hakím, Secretary of Cooperation for Latin America and Iberia, said that obtaining better social cohesion is fundamental for the region to increase tax collection, since governments have few resources to fight poverty.

The meeting, which concludes today, gathered representatives from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Cuba, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Portugal, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.