The heads of state participating at the VI Summit of the Americas in Cartagena have all returned to their respective nations. Most news media outlets are reporting on the fact that no major treaties were signed, and no final declaration was issued due to lack of consensus in various topics.

President Barack Obama returned to the United States to deal with a scandal involving Secret Service agents and prostitutes, but the rest of the leaders have a lot to consider in terms of protecting their constituencies from risks and grasping opportunities to improve the well-being of their citizens.

As President Laura Chinchilla addressed the assembled heads of state, she delivered the following salient points:

“In carrying on this agenda [of creating and equally distributing wealth], information technologies can be powerful allies. Their careful application can help stimulate citizen participation, promote transparency, enable access to information, and stimulate the creation of wealth based on innovation.

For an economy of my country, in which our competitive advantage is the quality of our human resources, information technologies are crucial instruments to empower knowledge and innovation.”

Later in her address, our President outlined what she referred to as the greatest threats our country faces: consequences from climate change and organized crime (drug trafficking). As to the latter threat, our President explained that Costa Rica’s best strategy to combat organized crime is through prevention. This prevention can only be achieved with investment in human capital, and providing the needed stimulus for democracy and civil rights to flourish.

Our President posited that the issue of drug trafficking should be looked at from four different perspectives: as a public health matter, as a priority of prevention in our school system, as a challenge to increase transparency in our institutions, and as a matter that should be dealt with democratically.

The concluding remarks of President Laura Chinchilla reminded leaders that solid results can be achieved if the different nations come together as partners in prosperity.

Source: TicoVision