32 countries will be observers at the gathering
BY SUZZETE ALCÁNTARA
The News
MEXICO CITY – The ninth summit of the Pacific Alliance starts Friday in Punta Mita, Nayarit, with President Enrique Peña Nieto inaugurating the gathering of heads of state from the nations in one of Latin America’s top economic blocs.
Attending the summit will be Presidents Juan Manuel Santos Calderón from Colombia, Ollanta Moisés Humala Tasso from Peru and Michelle Bachelet Jeria from Chile.
Mexico will also host 32 other observer countries who will hold dialogues with the Council of Ministers in order to generate an agenda on issues of mutual interest.
The Pacific Alliance is guided by four pillars — the free movement of goods and services, the free movement of capital, the free movement of people, and mutual cooperation.
José Ángel Gurría, secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), will also participate in the summit. He has agreed to establish cooperation mechanisms to achieve greater integration and competitiveness in small and medium enterprises, presenting programs on entrepreneurship and innovation and the adoption of an agenda with observers.
At the summit, foreign ministers of the member countries will sign the Inter-institutional Agreement of the Pacific Alliance for a Working Holiday Program, which will allow young people from member nations to enter as tourists into any of the four alliance nations to engage in paid employment and thereby be able to pay for their stay.
Also at the meeting in Punta Mita, the incorporation of the Mexican Stock Exchange in the Integrated Latin American Market (MILA) will be announced, with the intention to consolidate an integrated stock market with the member countries of the Pacific Alliance.
The countries of the Pacific Alliance lead the most successful deep integration process in Latin America. As a bloc, it represents the eighth largest economy in the world. It has a population of 212 million people.
No comments:
Post a Comment