Mexico President Vicente Fox recently addressed the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s strategy meeting for local development for Latin America . Below is an excerpt from his remarks.

            Undoubtedly one of the main challenges facing humankind is how to promote development, how to eliminate poverty, how better to distribute income. Above all, facing these challenges requires determination and will. It requires a joint effort and teamwork to bring about sustained and sustainable economic growth, but at the same time growth with a human face, and growth with equity.

            In Mexico we have learned our lesson, we know all about this. We have learned that the fight for economic stability starts with an unbending and strict fiscal discipline. It is the only way to have healthy growth. For a long time we have seen that authoritarian policies led us to major disasters. We have not only learned in this struggle, but we have already won some important battles.

            In these two and a half years we have maintained a policy, based on a solid and unbending fiscal discipline, that has brought us great stability and has protected —and this is the most important thing— the incomes of people and families, and has protected their assets. For the first time we are enjoying inflation rates that are coming into line with those of leading economies. For the first time we are enjoying interest rates —the lowest in our history— that are coming into line with the economies we compete with.

            We have the highest reserves in our history —more than $53 billion— and the foreign debt is falling each year, currently standing at a level of $76 billion. Our reserves to debt ratio is one of the best in the world. We also have a free economy; Mexico ’s economy is one of the most open in the world and, undoubtedly, it has the largest number of free trade agreements.

  Mexico has built a network of free trade agreements with 32 countries and the most important of these agreements are with the world’s largest markets, as is the case of NAFTA, with North America, the agreement with the European Union, the agreement we are going to sign with Japan next September; and other agreements we...

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