El Industrial, May 1995.
For the Guatemalan industrial sector, sustainable development is understood to be a necessity and a challenge that introduces new elements such as environment, culture, democracy and peace.
Recently, during the VI Industrial Congress, a group of businessmen, aware of the importance of maintaining, sustaining and preserving the development of national production, committed to implement a new development model in their companies.
“There is no question that sustainable development is a model of economic and social growth that will strengthen production in the country in the long term and allow each industry to plan with a long-term vision”, said the president of the Congress, Mr. Juan José Urruela, at the inaugural event.
“The talks that we will listen to over these days will provide us with elements of judgment that will help us review production patterns, and will influence our way of producing, consuming and living. Our position should then be that the industrial sector will follow through to attain sustainable development”, he concluded.
In recent years, we have known various development models at New Horizons. Its scope in the public sphere and its participation in international organizations have revealed new horizons for us.
“Only in the past decade, there has been talk of inward models, of national strategy, of structural adjustment, of the promotion of exports. Today we have completed the review of a new scheme. Sustainable development is a necessity, an urgency” said Juan José Gutiérrez, president of the Guatemalan Chamber of Industry, at the closing of the VI Industrial Congress.
Far from seeking simplifications, it warns us that working with a view to the long term is essential. It is not enough to achieve development. It is imperative to sustain it, maintain it, preserve it, he stressed.
“Our task of bringing the country into the new world economic order and fighting poverty have become permanent. The goal is never reached, the goal is the work of every day”.
“This new concept tells us about the future. It introduces new elements in a development model, such as the environment, culture and democracy. However, it is necessary to add an essential component to this interpretation: industry”, he stated.
“Indeed, industry is the foundation of sustainable development. We fill our empty hands with goods and products created through our effort. We relieve the needs of the people with goods that are useful to them, and products that make their lives better, easier and more fulfilling.
“We provide realistic answers, ask questions as tough as what to produce, how to do it, where, when, for what, who should work, how much is fair pay, etc.,” he added.
“The numbers are eloquent, we contribute 20% to the gross domestic product, 40% to the economically active population, 50% to exports.
“Management provides the best decisions by defining objectives for the use of resources and for the application of modern production methods.
With our fire we keep burning the weak bonfire of the country, a flame that is lit when a Guatemalan consumes something extracted from our initiatives.
It is indisputable that the industrialization process in Guatemala has promoted the modernization of our society. The main movements towards the evolution of the country bear the imprint, seal and achievements of the manufacturing sector”, he said.
“We were, we are and we will be the force that will make development sustainable. Our history and our actions constantly create and renew the foundations of the Guatemala of tomorrow”.
We meet our challenge. We fulfill our commitment on time. While some observe, criticize, and wait, we advance, act and take concrete action. Our reward is our mission. We feel rewarded for completing it.
Indeed, to paraphrase the postulate of the new world development model, we will sustain development”.
“We have sculpted history. Long live national industry! Long live the Chamber of Industry of Guatemala! Thank you, industrialist friends. Thank you, Guatemala”, Gutiérrez concluded.
“To achieve sustainable economic development with its ensuing growth, it is necessary to consider aspects such as globalization, trade, macroeconomic stability, investment climate, infrastructure, human resources, technological innovation and productivity,” said José Manuel Salazar in his talk on Sustainable Economic Development.
“Regarding investment and trade,” he said, “it is important to highlight aspects such as the elimination of internal distortions in relative prices, secure access to foreign markets, and obtain information on foreign markets.
Macroeconomic stability and the investment climate require: fiscal, monetary and price stability; adjustments in the exchange rate, simultaneously with the reduction of tariffs; clear rules of the game; adequate legal framework; agile and efficient procedures”, he added.
“Productivity and competitiveness require enhancing human resource quality; infrastructure improvement; comprehensive support for small and medium-sized businesses; improvement of technological innovation processes and business management”, he concluded.
Globalization and sustainable economic growth
“To achieve sustainable economic development with its ensuing growth, it is necessary to consider aspects such as globalization, trade, macroeconomic stability, investment climate, infrastructure, human resources, technological innovation and productivity,” said José Manuel Salazar in his talk Sustainable Economic Development Sustainable.
“Regarding investment and trade,” he said, “it is important to highlight aspects such as the elimination of internal distortions in relative prices, secure access to external markets, and obtain information on external markets. Macroeconomic stability and the investment climate require fiscal, monetary and price stability; adjustments in the exchange rate simultaneous with the reduction of tariffs; clear rules of the game; adequate legal framework; agile and efficient procedures”, he added.
“Productivity and competitiveness require enhancing human resource quality; infrastructure improvement; comprehensive support for small and medium-sized businesses; improvement of technological innovation processes and business management”, he concluded.
Attorney-at- Law Federico Linares gave a lecture a “An effective path to combat poverty”, in which he explained the principles to follow to achieve development that improves quality of life.
“The path to follow is global investment”, he said. Investment must be made in different areas such as human resources, physical capital and technology, he added. If investment increases, employment will be created and production and development will rise”.
Linares mentioned, as essential to achieve economic development, a long-term vision, accelerated growth, enhancing human capital and physical infrastructure, participation by all, responsible politicians and competitive leaders, growth through investment, legal certainty and a culture of production.
“Sustainable development is emerging as one of the most transcendental historical commitments that the governments of the region have adopted in recent times, and to which proper attention is being given” said Doctor Oscar Santamaría when speaking of consolidation, politics, peace and democracy.
“Partnership for sustainable development, he added, as an integrated approach, requires the participation of all of civil society without exclusions, so that, together with the governments of the region, we can open up to formulas where we focus on solution to the sensitive issues that afflict us at present, based on a vision towards the future.
The private sector, critical to the transformation of our societies, has, in this sense, a role of great importance to play in helping to tackle poverty, by allocating resources for investment in human capital and promoting sustainable development.
We can conclude that peace, democracy and development are elements that make up an indivisible, complementary and indispensable trilogy to promote progress and the integral well-being of our nations. Luis Pazos, the renown Mexican economist, closed the VI Industrial Congress with his lecture on the strategy followed in his country to start a process of sustainable development. He urged the rapidly growing Guatemalan industrial sector to focus its attention and investment on specific aspects that can be extended to global free trade.
“We have sculpted history” – said Gutiérrez.
Luis Pazos explained to the industrial sector the importance of sustainable development for the economic growth of a region.
Juan José Urruela, President of the Congress explained to attendees the mechanism to follow, when he spoke, in the company of Juan Mauricio Wurmser, Jaime Botrán, Juan José Gutiérrez, Carlos Vielman and Jorge García.
