6th Latin American and Caribbean Days international conference

SLOVENIA, November 20 - The 6th LAC Days conference, organised by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs since 2018, brings together representatives from seven Latin American and Caribbean countries and Rodolfo Sabongo, Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). The conference was opened by Secretary General Barbara Žvokelj, who stressed in her speech that despite the geographical distance of the region, relations with the LAC countries are of the utmost importance for Slovenia: "It is in our common interest to strengthen bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, education, culture, science and research, with a focus on the green and digital transition and artificial intelligence."

Slobodan Šešum, Director General for Economic and Public Diplomacy, also addressed the participants, stressing the importance of economic cooperation with LAC countries. His speech was followed by presentations from Slovenian companies Cetis, Aerosol, Duol, AquafilSlo and Ema, which are already successfully doing business or are interested in working with partners from the region. Ambassador Tadej Rupel, National Coordinator for External Aspects of Digitalisation, Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security, spoke about Slovenia's cooperation with the region in the field of digitalisation and artificial intelligence, where an intensive dialogue is taking place within the EU-LAC alliance. This was followed by a presentation of the work of the Slovenian Space Office.

In the following session, the Centre of Excellence Vesolje.si, the International Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence under the auspices of UNESCO (IRCAI), the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Blue Economy and the Forestry Institute of Slovenia showcased Slovenia's achievements in green and space technologies, digitalisation and artificial intelligence, and in circular and blue economy.

The day will conclude with a literary soirée at the Konzorcij bookshop, organised jointly by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the Embassy of the Republic of Chile in Slovenia, the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana and the Mladinska Knjiga publishing house. The event will feature a presentation of the Slovenian translation of the book When We Cease to Understand the World by the Chilean author Benjamin Labatut.