FAR from offering advantages to the Third World, the economic and financial openings demanded by the international institutions are hindering its economic development, dismantling the capacity of nation states and intensifying inequalities, to the sole benefit of the large transnationals and the banana republic economy of the United States.

That was one of the theses most reiterated yesterday in the initial session of the 6th International Economists Forum on Globalization and Problems of Development, with the participation of more than 1,300 delegates and guests from 48 countries.

Eminent representatives of economic theory and practice and social researchers are attending the event, including Nobel Economic Science Prize Winners Daniel McFadden and James Heckman. The forum, opened in the presence of Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban Parliament, and Carlos Lage, secretary of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers, also brings together six international and regional agencies.

As the agenda states, the meeting consists of five days of intensive work including sessions running late into the evening. Subjects to be discussed include trade, the external debt, economic policies, financial crises and regional integration.

Sixty years on from the Bretton Woods Agreement, millions of human beings/entire nations are paying for gambling in the great casino with their starvation. The external debt of the South is an uncontrollable time bomb, and those tragedies are compounded by others no less grave provoked by increasing militarism and warfare, realities that cannot be left out of any serious and responsible analysis, as Robert Verrier, president of the Cuban Association of Economists and Accountants and the Latin American Economists Association, stated in his welcoming address at the International Conference center.

Considered one of the most profound and plural forums for conceptual and scientific debate in the world, the event began with a much-awaited master lecture from Daniel McFadden, who focussed his reflections on the options open to the "emerging" countries for averting and confronting the risks of present-day globalization, while having to open up their markets and meet other neoliberal demands to the foot of the letter.

It was precisely his appreciation of the economic policies that the underdeveloped countries should employ which sparked the most contention, as in the opinion of many delegates the application of proposals similar to his is what has led to the economic and social collapse of more than a few nations, now totally dependent on institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.