MEXICO CITY, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on Monday presented its proposal for a comprehensive regional development plan in a bid to seek a solution to migration.
The plan aims to boost investment in southern Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, open integration programs and safeguard the rights of undocumented migrants.
During the joint presentation of the plan by the Mexican government and ECLAC, Alicia Barcena, executive secretary of the ECLAC, said that the project seeks fairer and more egalitarian societies, with more employment opportunities, which in turn reduces migration in a comprehensive way.
"The lack of employment, the lack of economic opportunities in their place of origin, is one of the main causes of migration," Barcena said.
She presented the four programmatic pillars agreed upon by the four countries: economic development, social well-being, environmental sustainability and risk management, and the comprehensive management of the migratory cycle with human security.
The senior UN official added that infrastructure such as the interconnection of power transmission lines and pipelines need to be built between southern Mexico and northern Central America.
For his part, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard highlighted that it is a plan compiled by the four countries together with ECLAC.
He explained that the project will now be presented to the international community, including the United States, Canada, the European Union, as well as other friendly nations that have expressed their interest in participating.
Ebrard said that the proposal "is a roadmap that tells us what we have to do to change the social and economic reality" of the region.
The Mexican government has estimated that around 10 billion U.S. dollars a year are required to run the program, so the support of the international community is sought, especially from the United States and Canada.
Every year, thousands of Mexicans and Central Americans seek to enter the United States as they flee poverty and violence in their respective home countries.
