Rio Group for LatAm-Carib Change
Statesmen from 20 nation members of the Rio Group in a Guyana summit Friday aimed at analyzing urgent regional social problems.

Guyana is the group s pro-tempore secretariat and representative in the Caribbean, an area "that has great disparity in levels of profit and peoples lives." That was stated by Guyana Foreign Minister Rudy Insanally, who said the meeting will be a wonderful opportunity for the mechanism of agreement to recover its central role in Latin America.

The need to invigorate integration processes in line with economic complementarity and solidarity were debated on Wednesday at a level of coordinators and foreign ministers.

The focus of attention is the analysis of regional advances in the fulfillment of the so-called Millennium Goals, which among other aims include the reduction of poverty and starvation by 2015.

Presidents from Paraguay, Belize, Chile, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil are expected to arrive during the day, and attend the opening ceremony Friday night.

Trinidad and Tobaggo Prime Minister Patrick Manning, CARICOM general secretary Edwin Carrington, Inter-American Development Bank president Luis Alberto Moreno and Organization of American States general secretary Jose Miguel Insulza also accepted the invitation.

The Group was created in 1986, to strengthen political and economic cooperation, and solve problems affecting members.

The Group is made up of Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Venezuela and Guyana.

Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo trusted that his position inside the Group will encourage current efforts to boost trade and create a sound regional market for goods and services.