ECLAC: Forty years of continuity with change

Before all else, I would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to the government and people of Brazil for welcoming us to this beautiful and hospitable city. It has been 35 years since our highest intergovernmental forum last met here, but in no way does this mean that ECLAC has been foreign to the Brazilian experience. On the contrary, it has been our privilege to follow the evolution of the Brazilian economy with the greatest interest, particularly through the ECLAC office which has been functioning in this country since 1968 with the support of the government. Brazil, a melting pot of the most varied historical legacies, has enormously enriched our store of knowledge by, for example, pointing the way to a form of industrialization oriented towards world trade flows.