Mr. Ambassador, thank you for your work in putting together this year's conference. I would also like to thank CLAA for its assistance when the hemisphere's energy ministers convened in New Orleans last July, especially at our breakfast meeting. It was an important step toward setting up a Western Hemisphere Energy Business Forum to provide ministers with private sector advice. CLAA and a number of the region's energy companies are working hard to make such interaction a reality. Energy is one of the keys to unlock economic and social progress for developing countries, but sometimes it's a struggle.
Improvements require capital investment.
And indebtedness and certain economic policies hinder access to that capital. We need to foster the current trend toward deregulation and privatization in the region. We want to help these countries and others do more. To get there, we need to work together as a region, as neighbors. Many of the countries represented here today have formed the Hemispheric Energy Initiative under the broader Summit of the Americas Initiative.