October 10, 2023.- On September 26 and 27, the Pacific Alliance, through the Subcommittee on Digital Economy (SCED), held the “Workshop on Business Digital Security and private transactions”, in the framework of the implementation of the Regional Digital Market Roadmap.

Both sessions were attended by national speakers from member countries and experts from international organizations, who addressed highly relevant topics, such as governance models for national authorities in the protection of digital security, cross-border transfers of corporate databases, the design of corporate digital security policies, the use of cloud services, and the use of digital certification, among others.

Peter Stephens, policy advisor at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, presented the OECD’s recommendations on digital security, which mainly seek to promote a culture of risk management within organizations, securing business activities and considering the citizen. He also stressed that all organizations need to be aware of the importance of digital security vulnerabilities and take a strategic approach to assess and address risk on an ongoing basis.

Marushka Chocobar, former Secretary of Government and Digital Transformation of Peru, commented on the governance models for corporate digital security in the region. She also highlighted the protocols that must be applied at national level in the event of cyber-attacks on companies, which, as she explains, can request support from the State if necessary.

Also, Heidy Balanta, data protection expert from Colombia, commented on the regulatory aspects of personal data transfers in PA countries and the challenges faced by Latin American companies when making these transfers. In addition, she pointed out that at the Pacific Alliance level, Colombia, Mexico and Peru have made significant progress; however, it is important that these countries are aligned with the new international standard. In the case of Chile, they will have to work on updating their regulations, which Heidy said will have robust data protection features.

Ariel Nowerszrtern of the Inter-American Development Bank presented an overview of corporate digital security, noting that 73% of Latin American companies ranked cyber risk as one of their top five concerns, only 29% have cyber insurance and 75% have not implemented any type of control. This reflects that, in Latin America, although there is awareness of the risk, few concrete actions are currently being taken to strengthen digital security.

CYBER READINESS IN LATAM COMPANIES
SOURCE: 10. SURVEY OF CYBER RISK PERCEPTION IN LATIN AMERICA 2019. MICROSOFT AND MARSH (2019).
11. GRUPO RADAR AND DATASEC URUGUAY (2021).

On the second day, Henry Pallavicini from Chiletec and Sergio Hernandez from Amazon Web Services participated from a private sector perspective, commenting on the importance of the Pacific Alliance countries to advance in the development of the legal framework to promote digital security and the adoption of international standards and certifications by companies.

Likewise, Pedro Castilla from the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property and Julio Mamani from the Ministry of Production, representatives of the Peruvian public sector, presented the use of digital certification for business development and how promoting its use would be beneficial for consumer confidence. It was also highlighted that the strengthening of digital security is important to be part of the state policy, which considers digital security as a relevant element for the proper functioning of companies.

In addition, it was concluded that it is important to deepen the public-private dialogue for the design of digital security strategies that allow companies to be better prepared for the current digital security challenges.

Therefore, we invite you to review the recordings of the 2 sessions of the Workshop, which you will find below:
Day 1: https://youtu.be/KUuGmLnQ-ew
Day 2: https://youtu.be/nOUV_LTX_9E

October 3, 2023.- With the participation of representatives from the countries of the Pacific Alliance, and guests from MERCOSUR, was held in Santiago, Chile, the International Seminar on occupational psychosocial risks: “Towards mental well-being at work”, with the aim of highlighting the participatory management of occupational psychosocial risks as a possible and desirable goal in the countries of the Pacific Alliance.

The Pacific Alliance, through the Declarations of Cali in 2017, Puerto Vallarta in 2018 and Santiago de Chile in 2020, issued a mandate that, in labor matters, originated the project called “Design of a policy for the management of psychosocial factors and promotion of mental health at work in member countries of the Pacific Alliance and guest countries of MERCOSUR.

This project has three stages, the first of which consisted of carrying out a diagnosis of the situation of psychosocial risks at work in the countries participating in the project, followed by a series of workshops by experts on the subject who debated on a proposal for guidelines for a policy for the management of psychosocial factors at work. This stage concluded with a document issued in January 2023 that contains both the diagnosis and the indicated guidelines.

The second stage, currently in process, consists of the design and execution of a communication campaign aimed at workers and employers, which raises awareness and stimulates the participatory management of these risks and the promotion of mental health at work.

Finally, the holding of this seminar represents the third stage, the occasion in which the report on the management of occupational psychosocial risk factors and promotion of mental health in the workplaces of the countries of the Pacific Alliance was presented and announced the current status of the communication campaign.

September 22, 2023.- On September 20, with the participation of nearly 30 technicians from the region, the Technical Subgroup on Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (SGT-MRV) of the Pacific Alliance, with the support of the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) and the Institute of the Americas, held the first of two virtual sessions on ‘Sustainable taxonomies: a key tool to strengthen monitoring, reporting and verification of climate finance’.

The objective of the session was to introduce and discuss the concept of sustainable taxonomies, present an overview of the state of development and implementation of taxonomies in the world and especially in Pacific Alliance countries, and discuss how these taxonomies can guide investments and transparency in line with the Paris Agreement. Some key messages were:

• Sustainable taxonomies promote a common language in sustainable investments, aligning public and private actors on the type of actions to finance to meet the commitments of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.

• The global taxonomy landscape indicates that the movement towards sustainable finance investment and capital mobilization has led to an increase in green taxonomies around the world. Jurisdictions in Western Europe, Asia and the Pacific have made progress over the past three years in developing policy and technical aspects working towards a transparent reporting architecture for sustainable finance.

• Although globally most taxonomies remain voluntary, there are exceptions such as China, the European Union and Malaysia. These are mandatory taxonomies in verification reporting. In the Pacific Alliance, Mexico is interested in making a taxonomy mandatory after the current piloting stage.

The report summarizing this first session (in Spanish), together with the recording and the exhibited presentations, can be found at the following link: https://alianzapacifico.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Relatoria-sesion-1-CdP-Taxonomias.pdf

September 6, 2023.- The High-Level Group (GAN) of the Pacific Alliance (PA), which brings together Vice Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and their representatives from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, met last Friday, September 1, 2023, in Lima.

The high authorities and representatives addressed the status of negotiations with the candidates for Associated State and the accession of new full members of the integration mechanism.

The GAN also reviewed the preparations for the X PA Investment Forum in New York; the VIII PA Youth Meeting, organized jointly with Nestlé, on October 18 in Lima; and the II PA Exporting SME Meeting, on November 9 in Lima.

The authorities received representatives of the Pacific Alliance Business Council (CEAP), made up of the private sector of the four countries, to learn about their initiatives and recommendations, as well as representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a strategic partner of the PA, to follow up on the valuable technical-financial support of this institution in the development of topics such as innovation, environment, gender, etc.

The meeting was attended by Ignacio Higueras, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Teresa Mera, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, representing Peru, the current pro tempore presidency of the mechanism; Claudia Sanhueza, Undersecretary of International Economic Relations, representing Chile; Luis Felipe Quintero, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, and Javier Higuera, Director of Regional Concertation and Integration Mechanisms of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, representing Colombia; and for Mexico, Efraín Guadarrama, General director of American Regional Organizations and Mechanisms of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Vicente Peredo, Head of the International Trade Negotiations Unit of the Ministry of Economy.

• The meeting, which took place in Santiago, brought together the main sectoral authorities from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, as well as professionals from other Latin American countries.

September 5, 2023.- To generate a strategy to attract tourism investments for the member countries of the Pacific Alliance, strengthen coordination and generate implementation mechanisms, encouraging development, growth and consolidating the post-pandemic economic recovery. These were the main objectives of the meeting held in Santiago, which brought together the main sectoral authorities of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, and representatives of other Latin American countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

The meeting also addressed the work carried out in identifying the enabling conditions to generate the strategy for attracting tourism investment; determining the investment vectors, identifying investment opportunities in each country; generating tools to disseminate the support lines of each of the countries to facilitate investment and formalizing the sustainability mechanism of the strategy, establishing a Pacific Alliance Tourism Investment Committee and drawing up a biannual action plan.

During the meeting, authorities and participants attended the presentation “Green Investments for Sustainable Tourism”, as well as panels on regional integration as a mechanism to strengthen the attraction of tourism investments and the promotion of tourism investments as an instrument to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. They also received a message from Gustavo Santos, regional director for the Americas of the World Tourism Organization, who addressed the importance of promoting green investments, precisely the central motto of World Tourism Day to be celebrated on September 27.

In this context, the working spaces emphasized the importance of promoting cooperation and encouraging the implementation of sustainable investment schemes to attract tourism investments in the Pacific Alliance countries, in a scenario of reactivation of the industry, and also highlighted the need to generate enabling and facilitating conditions to promote a pro-investment ecosystem in the Pacific Alliance countries, benefiting potential investors and entrepreneurs interested in investing in tourism, and positioning the Pacific Alliance countries as destinations for investment in tourism, facilitating the opening of new businesses in the sector, the improvement of the existing offer and job creation.

The first investment attraction seminar was part of the implementation of the project financed by the Pacific Alliance Cooperation Fund called “Boosting the attraction of tourism investments for the sustainable reactivation of the Pacific Alliance countries”.

• A space to learn about the best of the sustainable tourism offerings of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, identify synergies and establish strategic alliances.

September 4, 2023.- Within the framework of the Tourism Cooperation Agreement of the Pacific Alliance, the entities responsible for the promotion of international tourism of the four countries – National Tourism Service of Chile (SERNATUR), PROCOLOMBIA, Secretariat of Tourism of Mexico (SECTUR), and PROMPERÚ – on August 17, 2023, the 1st Sustainable Tourism Business Meeting of the Pacific Alliance ended.

On August 9, the 1st Sustainable Tourism Business Meeting of the Pacific Alliance was inaugurated with words from Claricia Tirado, director of Tourism Promotion of PROMPERU, in her capacity as pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance, where she indicated that: “for the Pacific Alliance, tourism is a very important sector due to its great relevance in the development of the countries and its significant influence, directly and indirectly, in the lives of millions of people in the world. To speak of tourism is to mention its great potential for economic growth, due to its capacity to generate employment and its compatibility with nature, the environment, and its social surroundings”. During the inauguration, the final video of the joint Promotion Campaign was also launched, published on the Pacific Alliance YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/neSwloXaoFc), which was presented by PROMPERU’s Director of Tourism Promotion: “… this video invites us to travel, to discover and fall in love with an Alliance full of magic, biodiversity, adventure, customs, gastronomy and traditions of tailor-made experiences”.

This was followed by the Academic Agenda, where Vicente Ferreyra Acosta, Vice President of Sustainable Tourism of the Sustainable & Social Tourism Summit (SSTS) gave a keynote speech entitled “Sustainable and Regenerative Tourism, an opportunity for regional development”, which was attended by more than 130 people, including outbound and inbound businessmen, experts and the general public, in which Vicente Ferreyra emphasized: “We have learned that without sustainability and regeneration it will be difficult for us to have a desirable future and without a future there is no tourism, so we have a very important responsibility, we have an open opportunity to enhance these aspects in a much better way, together as an alliance with common markets, with common positions, which I invite you to reflect on and move forward together. And we also have a very interesting opportunity to develop business, to develop products, to develop promotion with a focus on these issues, which in reality is little done but as an alliance we could position ourselves in that sense.”

The day ended with Fernando Mandri, president of the Sustainable & Social Tourism Summit, where 20 inbound tourism companies from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru were trained in the construction of their value proposition in terms of sustainability through the preparation of their Business Pitch; this space allowed entrepreneurs to improve the sales pitch of their products with a high sustainable impact, which will enable them to generate more effective business meetings that will result in closing business deals for our entrepreneurs and beyond that, that together – Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, we contribute to one of the priorities of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of our countries.

The activities continued on August 16, where 19 inbound companies from the 4 countries that make up the Pacific Alliance, presented their value proposition to experts and outbound entrepreneurs, in a novel activity of pitch sessions where they received comments from the panel of experts in sustainable tourism; Beatriz Román Alzerreca, deputy director of Development of the National Tourism Service of Chile; Laura Durana Posada, who heads the Colombian Association of Responsible Tourism – ACOTUR; Sergio Rodríguez Abitia, president for the Americas of the International Social Tourism Organization (ISTO Americas, Canada), advisory councilor to both the Conservatory of Gastronomic Culture of Mexico and the Association of Food and Regional Cuisines of the Americas (Argentina) and vice president for Social Tourism of the Sustainable & Social Tourism Summit and the Ibero-American Summit on Accessible Tourism; and Francisco Basili, president of the Peruvian Association of Adventure, Ecotourism and Specialized Tourism (APTAE). In addition, in this space, about 20 outbound businessmen participating in the event made their requests for meetings according to their interest in the proposals presented through the pitches for the day of August 17.

In the last stage of the Meeting, 1-on-1 meetings were held between the outbound and inbound businessmen who participated in the pitch sessions the day before. These meetings were held in parallel in 9 sessions of 25 minutes each, where 80% of the scheduled and accepted appointments were made, highlighting that 89% of the companies that participated were meeting for the first time with the buyers present at the event, according to the results of surveys to outbound businessmen. Some of the appointments did not materialize because, at the time they were made, there was a strong earthquake in the city of Bogota, Colombia, so the companies involved were contacted to reschedule the appointments and maintain the business relationship. It should be noted that, according to the responses to the surveys after the networking session, the main products of interest were Vacation, focused on Culture, Gastronomy, History, Archeology, Nature and Adventure in the destinations of Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico.

31 August 2023 – The National Coordinators of the Pacific Alliance (PA), a regional integration mechanism made up of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, met today in Lima, Peru.

During the meeting, the National Coordinators addressed issues related to the expansion of the mechanism, the PA Cooperation Fund and the current status of the Joint Declarations of cooperation between the Pacific Alliance and Observer States, regional blocs and other allied bodies of the mechanism, on topics such as circular economy, gender, environment, among others.

They also discussed the guidelines for the development of cooperation initiatives between the Pacific Alliance and third states, as well as the celebration of the next meetings of the Pacific Alliance at the end of this year and the beginning of 2024. In the same way, they addressed the organization of important trade events that will benefit and promote the internationalization of MSMEs in the region.

The meeting was led by Peru, the current pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance, and was attended by the National Coordinating Bodies of the countries that make up this integration mechanism.

With the presence of representatives from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, the handover ceremony of the pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance from Chile to Peru was held today in Santiago.

The ceremony was headed by Chile’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alberto van Klaveren, and the Undersecretary for International Economic Relations, Claudia Sanhueza, and was attended by Peru’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ana Cecilia Gervasi, and the Vice Minister of Tourism of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Madeleine Burns; for Colombia, the Vice Minister of Multilateral Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Elizabeth Taylor; and for Mexico, the Director General of American Regional Organizations and Mechanisms of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Efraín Guadarrama.

During the handover of the pro tempore presidency to his Peruvian counterpart, Minister Alberto van Klaveren emphasized that he “highly values the Pacific Alliance as a real contribution to regional prosperity and to the challenges we face in Latin America, by balancing economic, social and environmental development in an equitable and sustainable manner”. He added that “for Chile it is of special interest to strengthen ties between the countries of our continent, thus promoting welfare and social equality in the region”.

For her part, Minister Ana Cecilia Gervasi highlighted that “the occasion that brings together the four member countries shows that the Pacific Alliance is in a new stage, renewing its commitment to regional integration that allows us to face shared challenges”.

As part of its agenda for this period, the Peruvian pro tempore presidency will aim, among other objectives, to strengthen the economic and trade agenda of the mechanism with a view to increasing intra-alliance trade; reinvigorate cooperation to move forward together in areas such as education, development and social inclusion, youth and gender; promote the accession of new member countries of the Pacific Alliance, as well as strengthen the projection to the Asia-Pacific.

It is worth mentioning that within the framework of this ceremony, the Discussion “Perspectives of the Pacific Alliance and Regional Integration” was also held, with the participation of the high authorities of the four countries in the panel: “A living and sustainable alliance”, which was focused on four fundamental pillars: gender perspective in the Pacific Alliance; youth and the Pacific Alliance; integration, trade and environment; regional digital market; trade and SMEs; Pacific Alliance and its approach to the Asia-Pacific.

COMMUNICATIONS PPT PACIFIC ALLIANCE

July 31, 2023 – The National Coordinators of the Pacific Alliance (PA) -a regional integration mechanism in which Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru participate- met in Santiago, Chile, in a meeting that, among other matters, addressed the transfer of the pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance from Chile to Peru.

During the morning, the National Coordinators (NCs) reviewed the upcoming activities of the Pacific Alliance, reviewed the work and minutes of previous PA meetings and also reviewed the reports of the Work Plans of the Technical Groups for the period August 2023-March 2024. In the afternoon, the National Trade Coordinators reviewed the reports of the Committees and Sub-Committees and working groups of the Additional Protocol to the PA Framework Agreement. They also held a virtual meeting with Pablo Garcia and Rodrigo Contreras of the Inter-American Development Bank.

The meeting was led by Chile, current pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance, and was attended by the National Coordinating Bodies of the countries that make up this integration mechanism.

PACIFIC ALLIANCE COMMUNICATIONS