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LOCALWednesday 13 January 2016
In Relation to the Caribbean Region;
Experts Emphasize Integration’s Potential as a Driver of Development
-During a seminar at dressed. for growth with equality, as nations agreed while gath- the creation of the SICA
ECLAC, the lessons and ORANJESTAD/SANTIAGO - well as a necessary instru- ered at the headquarters in 1991. With 56 million in-
challenges of the integra- Integration is a basic com- ment to promote countries’ of the Economic Commis- habitants in its eight mem-
tion process carried out in ponent of productive trans- development, authorities sion for Latin America and ber countries, the SICA has
Central America were ad- formation and of strategies and experts from various the Caribbean (ECLAC) in become a strategic con-
Santiago, Chile, during a tact point with other blocs,
high-level seminar recently. such as the Organization of
At the gathering entitled American States (OAS) and
“The Potential of the Cen- the Caribbean Community
tral American Integra- (CARICOM), among oth-
tion System (SICA) in Latin ers, he highlighted.
America and the Caribbe- Alberto Cortés stressed the
an,” participants analyzed importance of the environ-
the lessons and challenges mental variable in all Cen-
that the Central American tral American projects and
integration experience has enumerated the challeng-
provided to the rest of the es that must be addressed,
Latin American and Carib- such as the weakening of
bean region. the public sector and of the
The seminar was inaugurat- State’s regulatory capacity
ed by Hugo Beteta, Direc- as well as problems related
tor of ECLAC’s Subregional to transparency, corruption
Headquarters in Mexico, and safety that recently
who welcomed those in surfaced and have under-
attendance on behalf of mined the credibility of in-
the institution’s Executive stitutions.
Secretary, Alicia Bárcena. “This is a critical time to re-
Also present at the open- think what can be done
ing session were Vinicio with integration so that it
Cerezo, former President of truly fuels economic growth
Guatemala and President in the region,” the CABEI
of the Esquipulas Founda- representative stated.
tion; Víctor Manuel Valle, El In his speech, former Gua-
Salvador’s Ambassador to temalan President Vinicio
Chile in its role as holder of Cerezo explained how the
the SICA pro tempore presi- Central American peace
dency; and Alberto Cortés, process allowed for a re-
Director for Costa Rica of gional political decision—
the Central American Bank “to put an end to the do-
for Economic Integration mestic armed conflict”—
(CABEI). transformed into a relevant
In his speech, Hugo Beteta institution for all of Central
presented an overview of America’s inhabitants: the
the current economic and SICA. In this sense, the Es-
social situation in Central quipulas Agreements pro-
America, which is marked vide important lessons for
by vulnerability to external the whole region, he said.
shocks. He reminded that He also underscored the
even though 4% growth importance of “Latin Amer-
was expected for 2015, the ica’s Internal Sea,” the Ca-
social challenges continue ribbean Sea, in the config-
to be imposing, consider- uration of large trade blocs
ing that one in every two in the world.
Central Americans is poor “The story of the end of do-
and one in every four is in- mestic armed conflicts in
digent. Central America is a good
“Integration must have a example of how integra-
substantial role if we want tion can work. We have
the region to have its own legal and representative
voice on the world stage. institutions, and a develop-
In that sense, the road tra- ment bank. All of this could
versed by Central America constitute a new develop-
offers very important les- ment model for the region
sons,” Beteta said. (…) The potential that we
Ambassador Valle made Latin Americans have in
a presentation in which terms of taking action to-
he reviewed the main gether is truly impressive,”
milestones of the Central Cerezo said.
American integration pro- More information at www.
cess, which culminated in cepal.org.q
