Ottawa, Canada, May 13, 2022. On the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the establishment of the Pacific Alliance, the embassies of Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico to Canada hosted a panel discussion entitled “A sustainable and inclusive economic recovery in a time of upheaval: The role of the Pacific Alliance”.

The panel discussion included the participation of Dr. Meredith Lilly, Associate Director of the Masters in International Affairs at Carleton University, Dr. Pablo Heidrich, Associate Professor of International Political Economy at Carleton University, and Adriana Vega, Director of International Banking Communications at Scotiabank, as moderator. 

During the discussion, panelists addressed the priorities of the Pacific Alliance amid Mexico’s pro tempore presidency, including the promotion of digital commerce; streamlining the processes involved in the flow of goods; greater access to goods and services to the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises – notably those led by women, as they have greater potential to insert themselves in the trade dynamics between the four countries; and how these efforts can be coordinated with our Canadian partners.

This in-person event took place at the Embassy of Mexico in Canada and was joined by representatives in the fields of politics, academia, and business in the Canadian capital, who gained a thorough understanding of the relevance of this successful mechanism of regional integration and the existing opportunities to expand the ties with Canada. The four countries offered samples of their regional refreshments.  

July 14, 2023.- On Wednesday, July 5, the member countries of the Pacific Alliance, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru jointly inaugurated the Youth Volunteer Program of the Pacific Alliance 2023, in order to generate a space for common participation and integration among the selected volunteers.

The inauguration of the Program was attended by the national director of the National Youth Institute of Chile, Juan Pablo Duhalde; the coordinator of South and Triangular Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Lina Marcela Puentes; the presidential advisor for Youth, Colombia Joven, Gabriela Posso Restrepo; the general director of the Mexican Youth Institute, Guillermo Rafael Santiago Rodríguez; and the national secretary of Youth of Peru, Luis Humberto Ñañez.

During the opening event, the young participants were very enthusiastic and emphasized that being Pacific Alliance volunteers is “an opportunity to structurally understand the problems of the region and face them from our cultures”.

The Youth Volunteer Program of the Pacific Alliance 2023, face-to-face modality, seeks to give continuity to the efforts to promote experiential exchange through activities that form solidarity behaviors in young people, which have a positive impact on society, taking into account that youth is a key player in the region.

This year, the program is being developed through four projects, one for each country: Chile’s project, Youth Activists: feminism and memory; Colombia’s project, Environmental Volunteering: Youth Weaving Agroecologies for Peace; Mexico’s project, “Voluntad Joven: De Juventudes y Chinampas”; and Peru’s project, A-Gente de Cambio: Promotion of mental health of adolescents and their community.

Depending on the dates of each project, volunteers must travel to the city/country of the project for which they were selected, since the execution of volunteer activities will last up to 20 days.

It should be noted that this year, the program received a total of 1,785 applications from young people from the four countries.

More information: https://voluntariado.alianzapacifico.net/

July 31, 2024.- This morning, in the Montt Varas hall of the Palacio de la Moneda, Chilean authorities officially received the 20 women leaders who will participate in the Pacific Alliance Volunteer Program in the country this year. The event was headed by the Minister of Social Development and Family, Javiera Toro, the Minister of Foreign Affairs (s), Gloria de la Fuente, the Undersecretary of Social Services, Francisca Gallegos, and the National Director of the National Youth Institute, Juan Pablo Duhalde.

In the afternoon, the young women attended the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to talk with five female Chilean political leaders with the aim of making visible the relevance of women’s political and social participation in different territorial spaces.

The 20 young women were selected from among more than 500 applicants from Chile, Peru, Mexico and Colombia for the project “Youth, feminism and memory”, which seeks to highlight the historical memory of women social leaders in recent years, as well as to strengthen advocacy skills and the development of projects with a gender focus.

The volunteers will spend two weeks in Chile participating in a series of activities such as training workshops on leadership, discussions with organizations linked to civil society, visiting the O’Higgins region and ending their stay with an exhibition of their work related to the memory of women leaders in their countries at the Palacio de La Moneda Cultural Center.

PA Youth Volunteering

The Pacific Alliance Youth Volunteering program seeks that young people from member countries contribute to overcoming the challenges of the region through an experiential training experience.

Participation in this program provides an enriching experience of social and cultural exchange between young people from different countries, in which meaningful bonds are created and proposals for change are built in response to social and environmental problems affecting the region.

Communications PPT 2024 Pacific Alliance

The handover ceremony was led by Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren and the Undersecretary of International Economic Relations, Claudia Sanhueza; in addition to ministers and authorities from Colombia -which will assume the Presidency in 2025-, Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica and Uruguay.

During Chile’s Pro Tempore Presidency, substantive progress was made for the entry of Costa Rica, the Youth Technical Group was created and emphasis was placed on MSMEs and the Regional Digital Market, among others.

December 13, 2024.- Today Chile formally handed over the Pro Tempore Presidency of the Pacific Alliance to Colombia, in an official ceremony held in Santiago.

The ceremony was attended by Chile’s Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren and the Undersecretary of International Economic Relations, Claudia Sanhueza; Colombia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luis Gilberto Murillo, and the Colombian Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Luis Reyes Hernández; for Mexico, the Undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Raquel Serur, and the head of the International Trade Negotiations Unit of the Mexican Ministry of Economy, Victor Aguilar; and for Peru, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elmer Schialer, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, Teresa Mera. Also participating as special guests were the Minister of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica, Manuel Tovar, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay, Omar Paganini.

During the meeting of the PA Council of Ministers, which was held prior to the ceremony, the authorities formally accepted Costa Rica’s application as a Candidate for Accession to the Pacific Alliance Framework Agreement. In this way, during 2025 the Protocol of Accession will be drawn up to finalize the entry of this country as a full member of the bloc.

The authorities also approved the creation of the Youth Technical Group, whose objective is to contribute to the recognition and empowerment of the youth of the Pacific Alliance States. In addition, the Public-Private Roadmap for the Development of MSMEs and Entrepreneurship in the Pacific Alliance was approved, which will make it possible to establish and measure the progress of common policies in the countries of the bloc to take advantage of smaller companies as a force for regional integration, productive transformation and inclusive productivity growth. Along the same lines, the Roadmap for the Regional Digital Market of the Pacific Alliance was updated, a strategy that seeks to enable the free flow of digital products, goods and services that are marketed through the Internet, and capital linked to the digital market between member countries, with a focus on MSMEs.

Other important advances during the Pro Tempore Presidency Chile 2024 include: the first meeting of high-level authorities of Social Development where they committed to move towards the establishment of Resilient Social Protection Systems; the Second Ministerial Meeting for the Autonomy and Economic Empowerment of PA Women, and the adoption of the Declaration for Gender Parity; the preparation of a Digital Cultural Calendar with the cultural activities of the PA countries; the holding of the III Meeting of exporting MSMEs and Cooperatives, a space for dialogue and analysis focused on promotion, held within the framework of the PA Days, which also included two days dedicated to the Regional Digital Market, innovation and artificial intelligence; the XI Business Macro-Roundtable with 538 meetings, where 154 companies achieved commercial projections of approximately US$55 million; the XI LAB4+ Entrepreneurship and Innovation Forum, which brought together 157 companies, achieving business projections of almost US$11 million; the development of the communications strategy; development of a proposal for regulatory improvement in the sustainable management of plastics and the communication strategy “365 days with less plastic”; the exchange of experiences in Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, among others.

During the days prior to the Council of Ministers, several meetings were held within the framework of Chile’s Pro Tempore Presidency, including the High Level Group and National Coordinators, as well as the Business Summit.

Communications PPT 2024 Pacific Alliance

July 5, 2024 – This morning the meeting of the High Level Group (HLG) of the Pacific Alliance – composed of the Vice Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru – was held at the Federico Santa Maria Technical University in the city of Valparaiso, a meeting that closed three days of PA activities in this region of Chile.

The meetings were led by Chile, as the current pro tempore presidency (PPT) of this regional integration mechanism, and were attended by Chile’s Undersecretary of International Economic Relations, Claudia Sanhueza, and the Director General of Multilateral Economic Affairs and National Coordinator of Chile, Marcela Otero, who led the HLG; Colombia was represented virtually by the Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, Luis Felipe Quintero, and in person by the Director of Regional Integration Mechanisms, Ambassador Javier Higuera; Mexico was represented by the Undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, Laura Elena Carrillo, and the Undersecretary of Foreign Trade, Alejandro Encinas; and Peru was represented by the Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, Teresa Mera, and the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eric Anderson Machado.

During the meeting, the HLG gave the mandate to implement the creation of the Working Group to advance the process of Costa Rica’s accession to the bloc; the progress of the 2024 work plan of the Cooperation Fund and the status of technical projects financed by this Fund; the status of the PA-Singapore economic trade agreement, along with other processes of external relations of the Pacific Alliance; along with the preparations for the IX PA Youth Meeting.

Also, the Digital Economy Subcommittee made a presentation on the Regional Digital Market and highlighted the upcoming Dialogue to Update the Roadmap of the Regional Digital Market of the Pacific Alliance, with the participation of academia, civil society and the private sector, to be held on July 30 and 31 in Santiago.

The vice ministers also met with the Sherpa of the Chile Chapter of the Business Council (CEAP), to learn about the concerns of the private sector of the four countries and the activities planned for this year by the CEAP, also currently chaired by Chile; and virtually, they spoke with representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Public-Academic Dialogue

Before the start of the meeting, the members of the HLG participated in the “Public-Academic Dialogue on Economic Growth and Regional Integration in the Pacific Alliance”, organized jointly by PPT Chile 2024 and the Federico Santa María Technical University.

In this activity, the PA authorities shared their thoughts and perspectives on the future of the regional bloc with academics, representatives of trade unions, small businessmen and students.

Presentation of the results of the SME Policy Index 2024

In addition, yesterday the Vice Ministers participated in the closing of the presentation of the results of the “SME Policy Index 2024: Towards an inclusive, resilient and sustainable recovery”, where they highlighted the importance of MSMEs in the economic growth of the regional bloc, and the efforts of the PA to support these companies through joint initiatives, specialized policies, support to develop productive linkages, among others.

In her speech, the Undersecretary of International Economic Relations of Chile, Claudia Sanhueza, pointed out that the 2024 edition of the Index, “identifies new challenges and offers precise recommendations to our governments and highlights the importance of supporting the digital transformation of MSMEs and promoting a green economy, integrating

This Index is a valuable resource for the Technical Group of SMEs of the PA, which uses it as input for the preparation of the MSMEs Public-Private Roadmap that is expected to be launched during this year, with the objective of growing intra-regional trade of MSMEs in a sustainable and inclusive manner.

Communications PPT 2024 Pacific Alliance

April 28, 2023.- On April 17 and 18, technical teams from Chile and Colombia met in Santiago de Chile to share their experiences in the implementation of their climate finance (CF) measurement, reporting, and verification systems. The instance was promoted by the Pacific Alliance Technical Subgroup for Measurement, Reporting and Verification (SGT-MRV), which has the financial and technical support of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). Technicians from the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Social Development and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on the Chilean side, as well as two specialists from the National Planning Department (DNP) of Colombia, the institution in charge of monitoring climate finance in Colombia, and the coordination team of the SGT-MRV.

The objectives of the meeting were:

• Presenting the SGT-MRV, and the advances in the MRV component of climate financing to directors and technical teams in climate change in Chile and Colombia.

• Generating a space for technical exchange and share lessons learned between Chile and Colombia in MRV of climate finance.

• • On the Colombian side, presenting its experience in the implementation and consolidation of the CF MRV system, detailed methodology for tracking financing (public, private and international), reporting platform and uses and applications that Colombia is giving it, and

  • Generating a space for exchange to understand the current status and needs of the MRV climate financing process in Chile, including the progress of technical support that is being carried out jointly with UNDP.

In conclusion, the vision of the Pacific Alliance countries to continue moving forward as a block towards standardized monitoring and reporting processes (what is reported and how) was ratified. The foregoing, including a common guideline on the classification of activities that are considered climate change. Part of this will be addressed in the next face-to-face meeting of the SGT-MRV that will be held at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago de Chile on May 24, 25 and 26.