SANTIAGO, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The 19th Summit of Ibero-American Heads of State and Government will start a two-day meeting next Monday in Estoril, Portugal, providing a platform for Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking nations to discuss innovation, the global financial crisis and climate change.

    At least 16 heads of state from Latin American countries have so far confirmed their participation, Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado said Friday.

    In an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Friday before leaving for Estoril, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Alicia Barcena said ECLAC has high expectations for the summit.

    Important issues will be discussed at the summit, and ECLAC will take specific proposals to the meeting, Barcena said.

    ECLAC, which is headquartered in Santiago, Chile, is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations. It was founded with the purpose of contributing to the economic development of Latin America and reinforcing economic ties among its countries and with other nations around the world.

    During the summit, ECLAC will present the book "Innovation for Growth," which evaluates the situation in Latin America and deals with major challenges in the field of information and communication technology (ICT).

    "Broadband is a central theme because the cost in the United States is 0.001 percent of per capita income, and in Nicaragua it represents 36 percent. There is a huge cost gap between the U.S. and our poor countries," Barcena said.

    Other examples of the enormous gap between Latin America and developed countries are biotechnology and nanotechnology, she added.

    Until 2006, Germany had 578 biotechnology patents, Japan 1,214,the United States 3,462, India 49, China 10, Cuba four, Colombia two, Chile two, and Argentina four, she said, noting that Latin American countries are even less advanced in nanotechnology.

    "Our expectation is that this summit will set a network of ministries or institutions of science and technology, which can assist in the training of technicians and support them to establish their national innovation strategies," she said.

    Speaking on the current financial crisis, Barcena said ECLAC expects the summit to reach an agreement like the G20 summit held in the U.S. city of Pittsburgh, and reject protectionism of developed countries.

    "Commercial dynamism is not going to come from Europe but from China and other Asian countries, and it must be observed if the region is ready to reintegrate the world economy," she said.

    "The engines of the dynamism that exists between Spain, Portugal and Latin America are determined that Spanish companies' strategies to resume their work in our region are observed," she added.

    Several issues are not on the agenda of the summit, but will still be raised, for example, migration between Latin America and Europe, she said.

    As for climate change, Barcena said that "Latin American governments are willing to help reduce global warming, even though Latin America and the Caribbean represent only eight percent of total world emissions, but 20 percent of this percentage correspond to deforestation."

    She believed that a political agreement can be reached in the United Nations climate change talks in Copenhagen because the Danish government is trying to provide a "road map" between the Copenhagen summit and the Mexico summit in 2010.

    Latin America now has a great opportunity to raise energy efficiency to help reduce gas emissions by 20 or 30 percent, she remarked.

    "We're not talking about changing from fossil fuels, like oil, to renewable fuels, but being more energetically efficient," she added.