Havana - Some 400 experts from Panama, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba and other countries, start here today the Forum on Latin American and Caribbean Economy before the new international environment and its main challenges.

The event's official opening at the Convention Center will be in charge of the president of the Cuban National Association of Economists and Accountants (ANEC) and Co-President of the Association of Economists of Latin America and the Caribbean (Aelc), Oscar Luis Hung, including two master lectures.

The latter will deal on political economy of trade war, and Latin America from the theory of dependency, to be delivered by professors Oscar Ugarteche, coordinator of the Economic Observatory on Latin America and Claudio Katz, of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, respectively.

In conversation with Prensa Latina, Hung and the academic president of the event, Esther Aguilera, detailed in the forum will also participate specialists from Cuban study centers related to world economy, as well as that the new international environment is characterized by changes in the region.

For example, he said, several progressive governments have been substituted by others that attempt to carry out neoliberal policies.

The event will also have first-line expert lecturers who have participated in previous events in Cuba, among them, Jaime Stay, who will speak on regional integration and Carlos Quenan, who on this occasion will focus on the crisis of globalization and its impact on the region.

Other speakers will refer to the Caribbean in the contemporary context, in charge of Juana Tania Garcia and the integration of Cuba in the Caribbean Community,

to be presented by Jackeline Laguardia, both of the Caribbean Department of the University of Havana.

They will also refer to the paradox of economic growth in the Dominican Republic, in charge of Miguel Ceara, of the Pontifical University Catholic Mater Maestra of that country and ODS, infant work and youth employment: challenges for Argentina and the region, to be the subject

of Cecilia Zsogon's conference, of the Ginio Germani Institute of the University of Buenos Aires.

The forum comprises the launching of several books and, before the inaugural session will have the lectures on the Financial and Monetary International Panorama: Present situation and future risks, and Present trends of international trade: Implications for Latin America and the Caribbean.

They will be delivered by Mercedes Garcia and Antonio Romero, permanent professor of the International Economy Research Center, and Dean of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Havana, respectively.