Rio, November 18, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Around 400 government, business, and political leaders will take part in the First Latin American Business Summit, which the World Economic Forum (WEF) is holding, in Rio, from Wednesday to Friday (20-22). The WEF director-general, Fréderic Sicre, informed today that a workshop environment will be created, for participants to think about solutions for various Latin American regional problems in dealing with global challenges. One of the items on the agenda will be an analysis of the past, to see what can be learned from these lessons. There will also be a special session devoted to the Argentine crisis.

The summit will verify the comparative performance of Latin America in financial and banking terms and examine social advances, as well as creating, together with governments, a plan to combat corruption and determining what the international community can do to help the region. The role of the private sector in the war against poverty and on behalf of education will also be analyzed at the meeting. (DAS)