Speakers:

• Susan Segal,  President & CEO, Americas Society/Council of the Americas
• Felipe Bosch, President, FUNDESA
• Rodrigo Vielmann, Viceminister of Foreign Relations, Guatemala

To open AS/COA's 2014 Guatemala City Conference, speakers spoke about Guatemala's advances in development, investment, and regional integration.

Guatemala's Economy Minister Sergio de la Torre opened his presentation on the country's path for economic development stressing the need to invest in social inclusion in order for economic growth to be sustainable. At the same time, he noted that without accelerating productivity and growing the economy, social development is not possible.

The minister listed the country's major infrastructure projects, highlighting two main ways to grow the economy: a heavy industrial corridor that would integrate trade with Mexico, which would "open the doors to NAFTA" and lower energy costs in Guatemala by 75 percent; and a goods manufacturing corridor, with logistics to integrate Central America's markets and develop four cities in Guatemala, which the government chose as special development zones.