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.

August 25, 2022.- As a preamble to the meeting of the High Level Group of the Pacific Alliance (GAN, by its acronym in Spanish) made up by Vice Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, which will be held tomorrow in Lima, Peru, the meeting of National Coordinators of the PA will be held in that city with the objective of discussing issues on the common agenda such as the follow-up to joint declarations, the IV Cooperation Forum on the 30th and August 31, with the purpose of exploring opportunities for international cooperation with regional blocs, Observer States and other allied instances of the PA on issues such as creative industries, environment and sustainability, etc.; as well as the VII AP Youth Meeting, organized by Nestlé, which will bring together young people from the four countries in an event based in Mexico City.

Likewise, the representatives of the four countries moved forward on issues related to the reactivation of the audiovisual creative industries, the dissemination activities by the embassies of the 4 countries and improvements in the management of the mechanism.

COMMUNICATIONS PPT PACIFIC ALLIANCE

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.

COMMUNICATIONS PPT PACIFIC ALLIANCE

In order to develop skills for the implementation of a strategic marketing plan for a technical and professional education and training awareness campaign that will benefit the Pacific Alliance, Canadian partners will provide a series of 6-8 training sessions for members of the Marketing and Communications Network.

The first module, which took place on April 26 and 28, focused on developing research skills that will help participants to:

1. Collect and evaluate social data to build effective profiles of their identity, that of their customers and influencers.

2. Assess public perception of their brand identity.

3. Make recommendations that clarify their internal and external brand identity from the data collected.

4. Create effective cultural and social identities that reflect linguistic frameworks for communication design based on the social constructs of the target markets (clear psychographic profiles).

5. Assess the current media landscape to determine the most effective communication tools to reach a target audience.

6. Access the resources of traditional research tools.

These sessions are also an opportunity to share experiences, learnings, best practices and possibly resources across networks. Participants will receive a certificate upon completion of the training modules.

This training program responds to the needs and objectives set out in the Terms of Reference of the Pacific Alliance Education for Employment Program, developed by the Technical Group of Education, and is funded by the Government of Canada.