The concert “Beyond an Alliance” took place in Poland

December 13, 2022.- On December 12, 2022, the Mexican Ambassador to Poland, Juan Sandoval Mendiolea, inaugurated the concert “Beyond an Alliance”, organized in collaboration with the Embassies of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru in Poland.

Within the framework of Mexico’s pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance, the concert was held in the Kotlownia Hall of the Polish Vodka Museum in Warsaw, with the participation of the Mexican soprano Alejandrina Vázquez and the Polish pianist Adam Mikołaj Goździewski , who performed songs from the four member countries of the Alliance.

During the inauguration, the importance of promoting actions that allow positioning the Pacific Alliance as a vanguard mechanism with concrete results and the need to create a deep integration area that promotes greater growth, development and competitiveness of the economies that integrate it was highlighted.

Among the more than 80 attendees at the event, the presence of the Vice-President of the Polish Senate, Gabriela Morawska-Stanecka, as well as members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of the Senate, and Polish ministries and economic and cultural institutions stood out.

At the end of the event, a tasting of typical dishes from the four countries of the Pacific Alliance was offered.

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Pacific Alliance Business Forum

December 9, 2022.- The embassies of the member countries of the Pacific Alliance accredited in Austria held the “Pacific Alliance Business Forum”, organized jointly with the Austrian Federal Chamber of Economics (WKÖ), in Vienna.

The different segments were attended by important members of the Austrian, Slovak and Slovenian business community, as well as the Vice President of the WKO, Amelie Groß.

On behalf of the four countries of the Alliance participated María Claudia Alvarado, director of ProColombia in Germany; Gycs Gordon, director of the Commercial Office of Peru in Hamburg; Marcelo Villagrán, coordinator of the Chilean Strategy for Europe in the Green Hydrogen Sector. ProChile; and Mario Chacón, coordinator of Investment Promotion for Europe of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico.

In the round table participated eight Austrian, four Slovenian and one Slovakian companies, all from various industrial sectors. Also attended the four ambassadors in Austria of the PA countries and members of their teams. The presentations of the 4 panelists focused on the strengths and advantages of their economies and business environments, and the complementarity of markets that the regional bloc offers as a destination for investments and to integrate value chains.

The seminar registered an audience of more than one hundred people, including businessmen, academics, and the media. Likewise, it was attended by the ambassador of Ecuador in Austria, Mireya Muñoz Mera, and the ambassador of Costa Rica in Austria, Alejandro Solano Ortíz, as representatives of countries with a special close relationship with the PA.

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Generations that connect and international solidarity as the articulating axis of the Youth Volunteer Program of the Pacific Alliance in Colombia for the year 2022

Since August, 61 young volunteers from different regions of Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru began the training process in several components that strengthened their skills and abilities for volunteering, social action, leadership, international solidarity, and above all, multifunctional monitoring and activation of older people, with or without visual limitations, thus making profitable use of Information and Communication Technologies to reach all corners where the beneficiaries of the program reside.

From Mexico, we have volunteers from Puebla, Jalisco, Hidalgo, Queretaro, and Mexico City; from Chile, volunteers from Temuco, La Araucanía Region, and Santiago de Chile; the volunteers from Peru (the majority of the program) are from Junín, Cajamarca, Callao, Rímac, Sachaca, Huacho, Lima, Chiclayo, and Cusco; also, from Colombia, a broad representation of volunteers from Sucre, Bolivar, Chocó, Atlántico, Antioquia, and Bogotá.

The training process, led by Human Bonds by Versania (now known as Versania Care and Life), included more than 100 hours of intensive training led by experts that involve a deep and emotionally charged understanding of the work of the volunteers to reduce the social gaps in the region; they addressed different dimensions of volunteering, their purpose, the sense and meaning of this action in social transformation, international solidarity, philanthropy and a broad and detailed vision of the challenges we face as a 21st-century society; in addition, the volunteers had complete training on the reality of the elderly in Colombia, the psychology of the elderly, bases for accompaniment, sensitive listening, and the physical, cognitive and occupational activation of the elderly with or without visual limitation. The training process ended on November 16.

Since October 24, with the support of Colpensiones, the UAEOS and the Presidential Council for Youth, the process of accompaniment began for 61 older people from all over Colombia, with or without visual limitations, who were sent to a multifunctional activation analog kit at home to be implemented together with the young volunteers in the distance. This kit was designed by the nursing and neuropsychology team at Human Bonds by Versania and also includes a whole package of activities in digital format that older people will be able to access and continue implementing after the program ends.

XXVIII Meeting of Finance Ministers of the Pacific Alliance

  • On November 24, 2022, the XXVIII Meeting of Finance Ministers of the Pacific Alliance was held, with the in-person participation of the Undersecretary of Finance of Chile, Ms. Claudia Sanhueza Riveros, of the Undersecretary of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico Mr. Gabriel Yorio González and the Vice Minister of Economy of Peru, Mr. Alex Contreras Miranda; and virtually the Technical Vice Minister of Colombia, Mr. Gonzalo Hernández Jiménez. The meeting was chaired by Undersecretary Yorio, by virtue of the fact that Mexico holds the pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance.

November 25, 2022.- The Finance Ministers of the Pacific Alliance (PA) met in a hybrid mode on November 24 in Mexico City, to celebrate the XXVIII Meeting of Finance Ministers of the PA.

The ministerial meeting began with a space for dialogue on the economic challenges that face the PA region, derived from the current economic and geopolitical context. The ministers made remarks on the impacts of inflationary pressures and the economic slowdown in some countries. Additionally, they highlighted the importance of maintaining a balance between a framework of fiscal responsibility and meeting the needs of the population, through the use of all available public policy tools.

Afterwards, Mexico presented the results achieved under its pro tempore presidency of the PA. The Council of Finance Ministers (CFM) made great progress in terms of: i) financial integration, ii) finance and sustainable development, iii) investment in infrastructure, iv) innovation and financial digitization, v) management of catastrophic risks, vi) tax treatment, and vii) cybersecurity.

Among the main results to be highlighted are: i) the development of Common Principles to promote the sustainability of the bloc’s financial systems, which will serve as a common reference to promote sustainable investment and build an increasingly resilient and inclusive region, in accordance with the respective national frameworks and contexts; ii) the creation of a training program for officials of PA member countries in the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in the operation of financial systems; iii) the development of the rules of operation and organization of an online platform for the PA Financial Innovation Hub, which will allow the construction of a space for dialogue and consultation between innovators and the regulatory and supervisory agencies of the PA countries ; and iv) the design of the Catastrophic Risk Coverage Program, a mechanism that will facilitate the joint contracting of risk transfer schemes among the member countries of the PA.

On the other hand, Peru announced the mandates that will govern the CFM work plan for the following year. In this sense, its agenda will focus, among others, on the promotion of financial inclusion, the evaluation of climate financing mechanisms, the fight against tax avoidance and evasion, the mobilization of resources for emergency care in the event of natural disasters, as well as the strengthening of the Council’s institutionalism, including coordination with the other instances of the Pacific Alliance and the improvement of the dissemination of results.

Finally, the ministers thanked the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for its commitment to the Pacific Alliance, in its role as Technical Secretariat of the CFM, and technical ally for the development and implementation of initiatives aimed at strengthening the process of financial and economic integration of the member countries of this regional integration mechanism.

Meeting of Ministers of the Pacific Alliance is held as an exercise of cooperation between countries

November 24, 2022.- The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, along with the Undersecretary of Foreign Trade, Alejandro Encinas Nájera, led the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Pacific Alliance (PA) today, with the participation of the Vice Minister of International Economic Relations of Chile, José Miguel Ahumada Franco; for Colombia, the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Germán Umaña Mendoza, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laura Gil Savastano; and for Peru, the Minister of Foreign Relations, César Landa Arroyo, and the Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, Miguel Julian Palomino, who endorsed the presentation of the following declarations:

  • Declaration of Mexico City
  • Declaration of the Pacific Alliance for the Protection of the Environment and adaptation to Climate Change
  • Declaration for Gender Parity in the Pacific Alliance
  • Declaration of the Pacific Alliance on MSMEs and Entrepreneurship
  • Declaration of the Pacific Alliance about Youth
  • Declaration for Well-being, Development and Social Inclusion in the Pacific Alliance

Likewise, the Council of Ministers signed decision 13, “Guidelines on the Relationship between the Pacific Alliance and Associated States”, and decision 14, “Work Plan 2023 of the Pacific Alliance Cooperation Fund”.

Subsequently, the Council of Ministers and the Council of Finance Ministers, in addition to sharing the progress achieved this year, received high-ranking authorities from Costa Rica and Honduras, who have expressed their intention to join the PA as full members; from Canada and Korea as Associate States candidates, and from Singapore as the next first Associate State of the mechanism.

The host and Minister of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard, pointed out that these meetings are a sign of the commitment of our countries to forge a more social regional integration; recognized the importance of continuing to promote the gender issue transversally within the PA; highlighted the progress achieved regarding the candidates for Associate States; he emphasized the interest of all the member countries and those invited to work under one roof and, finally, he indicated that the XVII Summit of the Pacific Alliance will take place in Peru on a date determined by the four heads of state.

He also assured that “the Alliance works. Alliances that do not work, do not have applications for membership, and today almost the entire session was to listen to the countries that want to be part of our Alliance”.

“What we are seeing here is an exercise of cooperation and addition, there are not many. This is good news, whether or not they participate in the Pacific Alliance, because it speaks of the potential of cooperation, multilateral instruments and understanding between nations. So, they have asked me to transmit it to them because this was mentioned throughout the meeting”, pointed out Minister Ebrard.

For his part, the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia, Germán Umaña Mendoza, said that “only with social cohesion and inclusion, growth is warranted, because it is development and it is sustainability.” Sharing these values ​​today in the Pacific Alliance “is a privilege for my country, which is undergoing a profound transformation process, and for Latin America, which is responding in a really intelligent way to the serious difficulties we have experienced in recent years,” he said.

During her speech, the Vice Minister of Multilateral Affairs of the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Laura Gil Savastano, thanked Mexico for its leadership and above all for emphasizing the social sphere. She expressed Colombia’s commitment to total peace and regional integration.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru, César Landa Arroyo, highlighted that “assuming the pro tempore presidency with Mexico leaving such a high bar, commits us to deepen this social agenda that has already been defined.”

Likewise, he assured that “this interest has to be reflected in a tangible way for the benefit of citizens, and in particular with the accompaniment of sister countries that are in the process of integration and that this process should be completed in the pro tempore presidency.”

He also expressed his faith and hope to face a troubled time that our region and the world are going through, “it is continental and transcontinental unity, including Asia-Pacific countries, which will guarantee being able to solve in a much more integrated way, sharing experiences and also overcoming the differences that may exist for the sake of a common good, not only universal but also regional and local for the benefit of our populations, for this reason, we will reinforce the Pacific Alliance process”, he concluded.

The delegation of Peru, as the next pro tempore presidency, ratified its commitment to maintain the Pacific Alliance as an agile and regional mechanism; encourage all instances to work in coordination to promote the work agenda; support the processes of incorporation of Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras to the Alliance; strengthen relations with Observer States and promote cooperation projects that generate greater integration within the Alliance.

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The Pacific Alliance Investment Portfolio is updated

The Promotion Agencies Technical Group of the Pacific Alliance ProChile, ProColombia, the Ministry of Economy of Mexico and PromPerú updated the Pacific Alliance Infrastructure Investment Opportunities Portfolio. This version, in addition to the already 15 interesting infrastructure projects with investment possibilities, has strategic information for investors, such as trade figures, investment, economic growth, population, and reasons why the Pacific Alliance block is an attractive destination to investors. The projects are from the following subsectors:

  • Roads
  • Water and sanitation
  • Railway
  • Fluvial
  • Ports

For the second year, this initiative will be disseminated through two face-to-face Investment Seminars in Japan and Canada, and a virtual Investment Roundtable in China. The objective is to disseminate information on the advantages for investment as well as promote the 15 most important infrastructure projects in the block.

Read «Opportunities Portfolio»

The Pacific Alliance extend the invitation to a virtual seminar “Competences to take advantage of the digital space at school: communication, collaboration and learning support”

In the activity, which will be broadcast free of charge and open on Thursday, November 24, aspects and skills that are essential for professional teacher development in an increasingly digitized society will be addressed.

November 15, 2022.- After the pandemic and the closure of educational institutions, teachers had to learn to use digital tools to teach their classes remotely, which contributed to accelerating the technological transformation of society. However, this emergency situation was not necessarily accompanied by professional development that would prepare teachers to use these tools with a pedagogical sense that, in addition to ensuring learning, would ensure an inclusive education.

Aware of the importance of closing this digital gap -which already existed but which worsened with the arrival of COVID-19-, this year the Pacific Alliance created the PA Digital Teaching Network, a platform implemented by Fundación Chile that offers free online courses of high quality to generate capacities of pedagogical use in digital technological tools in teachers and management teams of educational institutions that work at the elemental or primary school level in Chile, Colombia, Mexico or Peru.

On Thursday, November 24, the third virtual seminar organized by this initiative will be held, where the more than 3,000 teachers who have been trained on this platform will be able to participate, but also all those who are interested in learning more about these topics. The activity, entitled “Competences to take advantage of the digital space at school: communication, collaboration and learning support”, will take place at 12:00 p.m. in Mexico; at 1:00 p.m. in Colombia and Peru and at 3:00 p.m. in Chile.

The speaker will be Mariana Maggio, an academic in Education and Technology from the National University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and Director of the Master’s and Specialization in Educational Technology course at the same university. Maggio is also a renowned writer and is the author of the books “Education in a pandemic” (2021), “Reinventing the class at the university” (2018) and “Enriching teaching” (2012).

To participate in the virtual seminar, people who are interested must create a profile on the platform. Then, access the program’s webinar platform and enter your email to confirm your participation in the seminar. The day before the activity they will receive a personalized email with the access address to the seminar.

Those who wish to learn more about the initiative and the training programs can access the Learning for the Future podcast “PA Digital Teaching Network: an alliance to strengthen digital teaching skills”.

Dialogue on Educational Cooperation between China and the Pacific Alliance countries

November 12, 2022.- In Beijing, the Dialogue on Education Cooperation between China and the Pacific Alliance (PA) countries was successfully held.

The event was organized with the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE), and included the participation of Dr. Liu Limin, president of CEAIE; Ms. Fu Bo, CEAIE Assistant Secretary General; Dr. Chen Dali, Deputy Director General of the Department of International Exchange and Cooperation, Ministry of Education of China; Mr. Sergio Narea, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. from the Chilean Embassy in China; Mr. José Francisco Díaz Ulloa, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. the Embassy of Colombia in China; Mrs. Erika Lizardo, business manager a.i. from the Embassy of Peru in China; and the Amb. of Mexico in China, Dr. Jesús Seade, as well as representatives of a large number of Chinese universities and PA member countries.

Dr. Liu Li Min, in his opening speech, stressed that educational cooperation is a very important issue.

For his part, Amb. Seade stressed that the progress, development, and innovation of specialized knowledge is only possible through programs that lay the foundation for the educational cooperation of excellence and for long term.

Sergio Narea pointed out that academic cooperation has been a priority for the PA from the beginning, and noted the importance of the event within the framework of the IV PA Cooperation Forum that was held on August 30 and 31 of this year.

Francisco Díaz Ulloa reiterated his commitment to strengthen exchange ties with China, and the common goal of making the PA known in multiple forums in that nation.

Finally, Erika Lizárraga invited to expand the mobility platforms of the PA youth and stressed that next year Peru, as President Pro Tempore of the PA, plans to continue with the dialogue and the ideas that were developed.

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Pacific Alliance holds dialogue workshop with Finland on roadmaps for sustainable management of plastics and regulatory systems on this matter

November 7, 2022.- Within the framework of the Presidential Declaration signed in 2019 in line with the strategic vision of the Pacific Alliance (PA), in 2020 a Roadmap for the Sustainable Management of Plastics was developed, which identifies eight areas of action focused on regulation, good practices and public policies; innovation, research and business transformation; plastic waste management and recycling; circular economy; financing; education, information and citizen transformation; trade; and international cooperation.

At the initiative of the Mexico pro tempore presidency of the PA, the Technical Group for the Environment and Green Growth (GTMACV) organized a virtual workshop for dialogue and exchange of experiences with experts from the Finnish Ministry of the Environment on the subject of roadmaps on sustainable management of plastics and regulations on this matter.

This activity is the second conversation that the Technical Group has held with an Observer State of the integration mechanism, within the framework of the aforementioned roadmap, after the one held with Switzerland on October 29, 2020, during the then presidency pro tempore of Chile.

In their opening remarks, Annika Lindblom, Director of International and European Union Affairs at the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, and Constance Nalegach, Head of the Office of International Affairs at the Chilean Ministry of the Environment and Coordinator of the GTMACV, highlighted the global problem of plastic pollution and the need to achieve joint solutions in this matter, including through existing international mechanisms and new initiatives to deal with this challenge.

The workshop included presentations on Finland’s “Plastic Roadmap” and the PA’s Sustainable Plastics Management Roadmap, including the development of these instruments, definition of goals and regulatory progress by both parties, in addition to international cooperation in different instances, among other matters. After the presentations, there was a space for consultations and the potential for existing cooperation between Finland and the Pacific Alliance in this matter.

Dialogue between the Pacific Alliance and Poland

November 7, 2022.- The ambassadors of the Pacific Alliance in Poland held a working meeting at the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, five state agencies in economic and commercial matters, and two chambers of commerce, with a view to intensify exchanges.

In the meeting, Aleksander Siemaszko, Deputy Director of the Department for Trade and International Cooperation of the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of Poland, highlighted that the resumption of this dialogue is an opportunity to advance in the internationalization of Polish companies beyond the European Union.

On the other hand, the Pacific Alliance was presented in general, as well as the cooperation projects with Observer States that were presented at the IV PA Cooperation Forum.

The attendees agreed to follow up on specific projects of mutual interest, including topics such as the digital transition of SMEs and academic cooperation.

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