On the occasion, Chile transferred the pro tempore presidency of the regional mechanism to Colombia after 16 months of management.

Santiago, December 11, 2020. Today the XV Summit of the Pacific Alliance was held. The meeting was led by the President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, who was accompanied in person by the President of Colombia, Iván Duque, and virtually by the Presidents of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and Peru, Francisco Sagasti.

During the Summit, the presidents signed the Santiago Declaration, which expresses their “deep regret for the loss of thousands of human lives in the region, as well as the loss of millions of jobs and the increase in poverty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” their commitment to “continue working together to recover from the effects generated by COVID-19 and overcome its economic and social impacts,” and their “recognition for the prompt development and implementation of the COVID-19 Action Plan” of the Pacific Alliance.

In the Declaration, the presidents also thanked the observer states, regional mechanisms and international organizations for their participation in the Second Technical Cooperation Forum 2020 and highlighted the adoption of the Joint Declaration on a Partnership between the States Parties to the Framework Agreement of the Pacific Alliance and the European Union, signed on September 25, 2019, which made it possible to share experiences regarding economic recovery in the face of COVID-19.

They highlighted the launch of the Pacific Alliance web platform, developed in conjunction with the IDB, and the implementation of the Roadmap on Improving Management of the bloc, “which will allow for more efficient work, with clearer roles and permanent monitoring of mandates.

They also indicate their agreement with “the approval of the Roadmap of the Presidential Declaration on Sustainable Management of Plastics, signed in Lima in July 2019, which will allow the implementation of actions aimed at reducing the impact of single-use plastics on our environment”.

Inspired to achieve the goal of the Pacific Alliance to promote greater growth, development and competitiveness of the economies of the countries that make up the Alliance, with a view to achieving greater well-being, overcoming socio-economic inequality and social inclusion of their people, the Presidents signed the Pacific Alliance Presidential Declaration on Gender Equality, which is accompanied by a roadmap to identify priority areas for action and goals in terms of economic empowerment to guide the work of the Pacific Alliance in the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies and initiatives to promote the economic and social development of women in the region, as well as the adoption of regulations to eliminate barriers to women’s access to capital and credit; to have measures that ensure that men and women have equal rights and opportunities in the workplace; to increase the regional balance of women in decision-making positions; to increase the regional balance of women graduates in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The Presidents also declared their firm intention to advance the implementation of the Strategy for a Regional Digital Market within the framework of the Pacific Alliance, to improve access to digital commerce; create an enabling environment to promoting digital commerce and boost the digital economy to generate new sources of growth and productivity, by signing the Pacific Alliance Presidential Declaration on the development of the Regional Digital Market and the drive towards Digital Transformation. The Regional Digital Market will allow, particularly SMEs, to expand their opportunities through actions aimed at reducing trade barriers and the use of digital tools for their international insertion.

During the Summit, the highest authorities of the Pacific Alliance held a meeting with the President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, a country that is applying to become a full member of the regional mechanism.

They also met with the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, a Candidate country for Associated State of the Pacific Alliance with which a substantial closure of negotiations has been reached.

In addition, they held virtual meetings with the members of the Pacific Alliance Business Council (CEAP, by its acronym in Spanish) and with representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF).

See Presidential Declaration of Santiago
Pacific Alliance Presidential Declaration on Gender Equality
Pacific Alliance Presidential Declaration on the development of the Regional Digital Market and the drive towards Digital Transformation

PACIFIC ALLIANCE

December 1, 2020. Today was the launch of the Comparative Analysis of Systems for the Assessment and Certification of People’s Labour Competences in the Countries of the Pacific Alliance, where nearly 120 people participated, representatives of different public and private entities from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, as well as delegates from the EuroSociAL+ Programme and representatives from the European Union.

The presentation of this Comparative Analysis is the result of the fulfillment of the commitments acquired by the Technical Labor Group (GTL, by its acronym in Spanish) of the PA in the Lima Declaration signed in the framework of the XIV Presidential Summit, held in July 2019. On that occasion, the labor mandate was established to “prepare a comparative report on labour skills assessment and certification systems in the countries of the Pacific Alliance, as a first step towards the development of a roadmap to standardize the certification systems”. 

To carry out this task, a Network of Experts in the certification of labor competencies was created within the GTL, made up of representatives from the Commission of the National System of Certification of Labor Competencies of Chile, ChileValora; the National Learning Service of Colombia, SENA; the National Council for Standardization and Certification of Labor Competences of Mexico, CONOCER; and the Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion of Peru; which has received technical and financial support from EuroSociAL+ to prepare this report.

At the opening of the event, jointly organized by the GTL, its Network of Experts in Certification of Labour Competences and delegates from the EuroSociAL+ Programme, authorities representing the pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance and the European Commission highlighted the importance of multilateralism and international cooperation within the Alliance.

Subsequently, the Vice Minister of Employment and Pensions of the Ministry of Labor of Colombia, Andrés Felipe Uribe, and the Executive Secretary of ChileValora, Francisco Silva Bafalluy, referred to the importance of the Homologation of Labor Certifications for the Development of the Pacific Alliance, taking into account the challenges within the Alliance to promote labor mobility and create strategies that facilitate labor insertion or continuity of studies in the countries of the Alliance.

Next, the representatives of the EuroSociAL+ Programme, Andrea Carlo Monaco, senior technician of the Social Policies Area of the EuroSociAL+ Programme, and Gloria Arredondo, one of the consultants hired by this entity for the development of the study, presented the main conclusions and recommendations of the Comparative Analysis, understanding that the development of this initiative contributes to the objective of the Alliance to achieve the free transit of people, in particular from the labor area, since it will facilitate mobility within the labor markets, improving the conditions of income and recognition of work experiences.

Taking into account the growing intraregional migration in Latin America, which is largely due to labor reasons, and the impacts of the pandemic on the world of work, Rodrigo Rojas Navarrete, General Director of CONOCER of Mexico, and Elizabeth Cornejo Maldonado, Director of Standardization and Certification of Labor Competencies of the Ministry of Labor and Promotion of Employment of Peru, commented on the challenges for the certification systems for the countries of the Pacific Alliance, specifically the importance of creating conditions for migrants to have their labor and professional skills recognized, as an instrument to facilitate their labor insertion and/or the continuity of studies in the destination countries.

Finally, the Director of the National System of Training for Work of SENA Colombia, William Orozco, closed the event by talking about the future perspectives of national competence certification systems and the importance of continuing the work of the Network of Experts in benefit of the articulation of the certification systems of the four countries.

PACIFIC ALLIANCE PPT COMMUNICATIONS

November 27, 2020. This week, the V Meeting of Youth of the Pacific Alliance was held: “Youth, employability and the impact of the pandemic”, which actively convened, on November 24 and 25, about 25 thousand young people from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. The event was organized by the company Nestlé together with the Government of Chile, in its capacity as pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance (PA), and the Swiss Government, as Observer State.

At the inauguration, the President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, pointed out that “this meeting with representatives of the public and private world, academics, experts, entrepreneurs and above all thousands of young people, is an opportunity to reflect and dialogue on a topic that interests us all, the future of the youth of the countries of our region”.

The 2020 version, for the first time and due to the coronavirus pandemic, was carried out virtually and focused on giving visibility to the impact of the pandemic on youth employability, presenting the model of alternation as a concrete solution to combat youth unemployment, in addition to empowering young people with tools to cope with this new work reality.

“This Fifth Meeting is a unique occasion to support and complement the efforts of the governments of the countries that make up the Pacific Alliance to provide all young people with an opportunity to start their professional lives, integrate into the community and improve their future,” said Laurent Freixe, Nestlé’s CEO for the Americas. He added that “we are very proud that despite the crisis we are experiencing, both the public and private sectors have been able to meet at this meeting which is a platform for dialogue, exchange of good experiences and delivery of concrete tools for young people. And also that we have managed to generate 100,000 development opportunities together with our partner companies from 2017 to date”.

For two days, young people were able to participate in panels on “How the pandemic has impacted the employability of young people in the Pacific Alliance and what we are doing to combat this situation”, where the authorities of the Ministries of Labor of the 4 countries of the PA participated; in “Models of Alternation in Training: Another look to combat youth unemployment”, which had as panelists ministers and undersecretaries of Education of the PA; New Trends in the Labor Market: Do you have the skills for the employment of the future? which had the participation of the director of Sence, and representatives and founders of successful companies.

In addition, there were testimonials from partner companies, success stories, presentations on Women, technology and the work of the future; Youth, employability and digital transformation; and Tips that will change the way you work remotely. They also had access to six parallel talks on relevant topics such as digital marketing, employability and personal branding, equity in the business world, among others.

The presentation of the Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi stood out, who shared with the young people his personal and professional experience, and spoke of the importance of not stopping dreaming despite the difficulties, of resilience, adaptation and renewal.

At the closing of the V Meeting of Youth of the Pacific Alliance, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Andrés Allamand, and of Colombia, Claudia Blum, highlighted the importance of working with young people, of training them, and of generating opportunities for them to face the future.

Youth Meeting

The Meeting is held since 2016 in the Pacific Alliance, and was born under the auspices of the Nestlé global program “Initiative for Youth”, with the aim of strengthening this cooperation to promote employability, mobility and provide tools for young people, a meeting is held every year that seeks to be a platform for dialogue between public and private sector, experts and young people on the subject. In 2019, it was in Mexico City, in 2018 in Cali (Colombia), in 2017 in Santiago (Chile) and the first in 2016 in Lima (Peru).

PACIFIC ALLIANCE PPT COMMUNICATIONS

Among the most outstanding areas to explore possible joint cooperation projects are global value chains, education, gender, environment, digital agenda, disaster management, artificial intelligence, among others.

November 26, 2020 – Yesterday, the II Pacific Alliance (PA) International Cooperation Forum ended, where representatives of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru met with 226 delegates from 48 countries, representatives of the PA Observer States, the European Union, the Eurasian Economic Community (EEC) and ASEAN.

The Forum, which was intended to consolidate the relationship with the observer states of the mechanism, with which it has been working jointly for several years, was divided into five chapters: the Americas; the EEC, Eurasia, the Middle East and Africa; the European Union and its members; East Asia and Oceania; and ASEAN, and it was developed entirely virtually.

The chapters addressed topics of diverse technical scope, related to international cooperation and economic cooperation. These included: SMEs; Agenda and Digital Economy; Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment; Mobility of People and Security; Creative and Cultural Industries; Science, Technology and Innovation; Smart Cities and Transportation; Tourism Reactivation; Environment, Sustainability and Water Resources Management; Facilitation of Trade in Services; and Disaster Risk Management, among others.

“We are very pleased with the outcome of the Second Forum, as it has been demonstrated that our integration block today more than ever interacts vividly with its Observer States. We hope to be able to implement each of the projects, ideas and ambitions presented. From the Pacific Alliance we maintain our commitment to our citizens to push for solutions, and to work actively with our partners for economic reactivation,” said Rodrigo Yáñez, Undersecretary of International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, the country that holds the pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance.

The first session with the countries of the Americas was held on November 10, with the participation of 68 representatives from 10 observer countries. During this meeting, various proposals emerged, such as that of Canada to share experiences in relation to Global Value Chains, Services and Cultural Industries, in addition to reviewing elements on the Gender approach.

On November 12, in the chapter referring to Europe, Eurasia, Africa, the Middle East and India, 27 representatives from 11 observer states participated, highlighting the offer of cooperation from Switzerland to hold a workshop on Public Procurement, continuing cooperation with the private sector in water management; from Georgia the collaboration in the exchange of ideas on the facilitation of trade in services; while Norway invited to participate in a workshop on Disaster Management.

The third chapter was dedicated to the European Union, on November 17, where 80 delegates from 17 countries of the European bloc spoke with the PA counterparts on possible areas of cooperation. In particular, the European Union offered to deepen the technical work on the Environment, Digital Agenda and Tourism; while Spain expressed its interest in carrying out workshops of interest to the Alliance together with its Spanish centers in Latin America, as well as giving continuity in terms of Education to programs and scholarships; and Slovenia proposed to provide experiences in the field of artificial intelligence, deepening in areas of cybersecurity and digital threats.

At the fourth meeting, on November 19, representatives of the Pacific Alliance met with 21 delegates from Australia, China, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand, where they discussed cooperation interests in the digitization of small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as facilitating access for SMEs to global value chains. In the area of innovation, New Zealand offered to exchange experiences on innovation applied to agriculture.

Finally, on the night of November 24, the final chapter of the II Forum was held with the meeting with countries of Southeast Asian and ASEAN, where 30 delegates participated. One of the most important topics was disaster management, in which Indonesia and Thailand pledged interest in participating in a workshop on the subject in early 2021. Indonesia also expressed its interest in collaborating with the Pacific Alliance on Mobility of People and Post-Pandemic Economic Recovery, as well as working with the PA on the gender gap, sharing good practices for overcoming the problem. the problem.

PACIFIC ALLIANCE PPT COMMUNICATIONS

September 25th, 2020. Yesterday, the national coordinators of the Pacific Alliance, a regional mechanism made up of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, met virtually around a full agenda.

Among the topics discussed at the meeting were the review of the proposed strategy for the development of the Digital Market prepared by ECLAC; the preparation of the meeting with ASEAN, which will be held virtually on September 28th (29th for Asia); and the organization of the next Cooperation Forum with the observer countries of the PA.

In addition, the national coordinators followed up on the approved projects of the 2020 Cooperation Fund. And they were informed about the preparations for the PA Youth Meeting, which is organized jointly with Nestlé and that this year will take place virtually.

PACIFIC ALLIANCE PPT COMMUNICATIONS

September 24th, 2020. The meeting of the Pacific Alliance English Network (RIAP, by its acronym in Spanish) was held virtually on September 23rd and 24th, organized by the Technical Group on Education (GTE, by its acronym in Spanish) of the PA, with the collaboration of the Chilean office of the British Council and the Inter-American Dialogue Program.

At the opening of the event, the Director General (S) for Multilateral Economic Affairs of the Undersecretariat for International Economic Relations of Chile (SUBREI) and National Coordinator of the PA, Angélica Romero, underlined the importance of this meeting and of “generating the inputs that allow the construction of a strategy to improve the study of English, contributing to optimize the link with the productive sector and facilitating labor mobility, also contributing to improve the commercial and economic opportunities of our regional bloc”.

The meeting consisted of two workshops: one focused on the challenges faced by Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, countries that make up the PA, in terms of public policies for the English language at the school and higher levels; and another workshop regarding the challenges identified to develop a cooperation strategy in this area.

The first one was led by Ariel Fiszbein and Sarah Stanton of the Inter-American Dialogue. And the second was attended by Rod Bolitho, an expert from the United Kingdom in teaching English, who also gave a master class on the first day, focusing on the international experiences of other nations and making a situational comparison with the Member States of the Pacific Alliance.

“The purpose of this meeting was to make the formation of RIAP official, to begin building the cooperation strategy and to hold a meeting with the English-speaking Observer States,” explained Enrique Laval, Head of the International Relations Office of the Chilean Ministry of Education.

For Katherine Hutter, Director of the British Council in Chile, “the meeting allowed us to define a roadmap to improve English in the countries of the Alliance, as a key element for their development, with inputs and sustained support over time from the observer states, including the United Kingdom”.

Regarding the Technical Group on Education, this activity was highly valued since “it allowed us to advance in a joint strategy of cooperation, as a PA and with observer states, to face the challenges imposed by the teaching of English in our countries,” said Maria Amelia Trigoso, coordinator of the GTE.