Michelle Bachelet
Presidenta de la República
Expo Shanghai 2010 will be one of the most important events of the coming year in China and the Asia-Pacific Region.
Chile has decided to participate in Expo Shanghai in order to present a very clear message to the Chinese people and government: that Chile is a reliable and capable partner and that although both countries are on opposite sides of the planet, we share the same desire to achieve sustainable development in the long term and increase the well-being of our people.
And that China can count on Chile to successfully carry out its own development tasks, strengthen its relationship with the rest of Latin America and build a better world in this 21st century.
If the center of the international economy was Europe in the 19th century and the United States in the 20th century, in the 21st century it will be in the Asia-Pacific Region. This process now underway has already begun to transform the world we know and will continue to change it in the decades to come.
China and Chile are part of the positive dimension of globalization, as are many other countries, including Latin American countries such as Brazil and Mexico, societies that have begun to lift millions of people out of poverty.
In developing its pavilion for Expo Shanghai, Chile is proposing a standpoint on how to develop, plan and build future cities.
The basic idea of Chile’s proposal in its pavilion is the idea that we must not forget that cities, like countries and the entire world, are first and foremost spheres for people to develop as part of a community, and not simply consumers in a market.
Thus, our urban policies have begun to address neighborhoods, not just housing.
That’s why our national policies promote economic growth, market development, innovation and competitiveness, but they are also focused on the needs and problems that threaten people’s existence.
That’s why we have set up a system of social protection and countercyclical policies that today, in the midst of the international economic crisis, have demonstrated their importance and legitimacy to the entire country.
And that’s why we have supported, in all global forums, the need to build a globalization that is based on rules which are forged democratically and multilaterally. We hold that in the 21st century, either we all govern together, or no one will govern at all.
Expo Shanghai, then, provides us with an opportunity to ask ourselves what kind of city, country and world we seek to build.
In this international event we should wonder whether we want our cities to be threatening or welcoming, or if we want a globalization without rules, the kind of globalization that brought us to the crisis we are now experiencing.
O si queremos una comunidad local y global basada en relaciones de respeto y cooperación, basada en normas generadas democráticamente y sustentable ambientalmente.
We should also wonder whether we want a local and global community based on relationships of respect and cooperation, founded on general rules that are generated democratically and which are environmentally sustainable.
The Chilean Pavilion at Expo Shanghai will reflect quite well the spirit with which Chile has faced and will continue to position itself in relation to the process of globalization, that of a country which is open to the world and is taking firm steps toward development as it reaches its Bicentennial in 2010. A country that is making an important contribution to Latin America’s development and integration and contributing to the articulation of our region’s relationship with the world, as well as the construction of global public goods that will ensure governability in the 21st century.
Michelle Bachelet
President of the Republic of Chile