SANTIAGO, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Inequality remains a great obstacle in the development of Latin America and the Caribbean region, a report published by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said Wednesday.

    Inequality in income, assets, land, capital, health, education and technology is holding back the region from achieving 2014 goals set in earlier editions of the conference, the report revealed. The report was published by ECLAC's Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena during the two-day International Conference on Population and Development.

    The ECLAC conference, subtitled "Key Progress and Action in the Implementation of the Cairo Action Plan, 15 Years On," was opened on Wednesday in Chile's capital Santiago.

    "Despite some important achievements, we should not be complacent," Barcena warned. "There are still unacceptable levels of social inequality and segmentation in our region, above all in employment matters."

    During the conference, Mari Simonen, deputy executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, said that "Latin America has much to celebrate. But the biggest challenge remains reducing disparities."

    "We have only five years to accelerate progress toward the Cairo Action Plan goals," she added.

    Although poverty has been reduced from 44 percent of Latin America's population to 33 percent in the last five years, 181 million people live in comparative poverty, while 70 million live in deep poverty.