The ambassadors of the four countries of the Pacific Alliance: Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, and the commercial counselors from their promotion agencies made a joint statement highlighting the potential of this integration bloc to foster the trade in services with Australia. This took place during the promotion seminar BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR AUSTRALIA AND THE PACIFIC ALLIANCE that was held on October 20 in Sydney, Australia, with the participation of business representatives from different sectors, entrepreneurs, chambers of commerce, government representatives and academics.

Paula Moreno, Commercial Director for ProChile in Australia, made an introductory presentation about the Pacific Alliance as part of her welcoming the attendants, on behalf of Chile’s pro tempore presidency.

Mr. Grame Barty, Executive Director of International Operations for the Australian promotion agency Austrade, also welcomed the participants, noting the relevance of the Pacific Alliance for doing business with Australian companies, encouraging them to diversify their trade with this growing region and to consider a greater rapprochement in order to explore new business possibilities with the member countries.

Augusto Castellanos, commercial counselor for ProColombia, Esaú Garza, commercial counselor for ProMéxico and Ricardo Salamanca, counselor from PromPerú, along with Ms. Moreno, also spoke about the business opportunities and complementarities that each of the member countries offers to Australian exporters.

The importance and the impact of the Pacific Alliance were addressed by a panel formed by HE Daniel Carvallo, ambassador of Chile, HE Clemencia Forero-Ucrós, ambassador of Colombia, HE Armando Álvarez, ambassador of Mexico, and HE Miguel Palomino de la Gala, ambassador of Peru. The panel was moderated by Ms. Rhonda Piggott, Director of the New South Wales State Office of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade –DFAT. The main advances and goals of the Pacific Alliance were pointed out during this exchange of ideas, those being, in a nutshell, to reach the development and competitiveness of the member States in order to achieve a greater wellbeing, overcome socioeconomic inequality, promote social inclusion among their inhabitants and become a platform of projection to the world, with a special emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region, through the free flow of goods and people.

Important details for the Australian industry were also highlighted, such as the completion of the agreement between the four countries of the PA for the total trade of goods, the joint opening of consular and trading offices and the consolidation of the mechanism as the most dynamic bloc of countries in Latin America.

Later on, Ms. Loreto Leyton, Executive Director for the Chile-Pacific Foundation, spoke about the most important aspects of the Pacific region.

Lastly, Director Piggot summarized the high points of the event, reiterating the enormous potential that the Pacific Alliance represents for the expansion of business and trade between Australia and the Alliance’s member countries.

There will be an ongoing work to analyze business opportunities with the Pacific Alliance with the more than 70 people who attended the seminar, which concluded with a reception providing a space for exchange and reach out between the participants and the speakers.

This activity was aimed at increasing the flow of tourists from the Chinese market to the member countries of the bloc and strengthening intraregional tourism.

• The event took place on 7 and 8 June and 2,430 business meetings were held.

• Next meeting to be held in Chile in the first half of 2017.

The 3º Tourism Matchmaking event of the Pacific Alliance, held in the Peruvian capital in order to strengthen the flow of travel within the intraregional sphere and encourage tourism from the Chinese market, brought forth business deals for USD 8 million between member countries of the bloc alone.

This figure was achieved thanks to the 2,430 business meetings held on 7 and 8 June and it represents a 43% increase against the previous event.

Outbound and inbound tour operators and airlines participated in this meeting. A total of 229 companies from the four member countries of the Pacific Alliance attended, with a significant participation of 20 Chinese tour operators, a market prioritized by the block for joint promotional actions. In this occasion, 30% of participants visited Peru for the first time.

“Success would not be possible without the commitment for a deep integration from the member countries of the Pacific Alliance. The III Tourism Matchmaking event has been an opportunity to strengthen the commercialization of combined packages for the Chinese market that include the main attractions of our countries, as well as to promote tourism products intraregionally,” said Peru’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Magali Silva Velarde-Alvarez, who will soon hand over the pro tempore presidency of the bloc to Chile.

 The countries of the Alliance recorded in the first quarter of this year an average 35% increase in arrivals of Chinese tourists. According to preliminary estimates, an average growth of 15% in visits of Chinese tourists to the bloc’s countries is expected by the end of this year, which means that over 170,000 Chinese tourists will be visiting Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

 INTEGRAL VISION

At the closing of the Matchmaking, Marisol Acosta, PromPeru’s director of Tourism Promotion, indicated that these business meetings allow to identify marketing opportunities, integrating new products into travel programs combined among the bloc’s countries, for both the intraregional and the Chinese markets: “Tourism between our countries has been favored with the entry of new airlines and new routes, as is the case for Mexico’s Interjet, Latam flights between Antofagasta and Lima and Avianca’s upcoming flight from Bogota to Cusco,” she said.

“In this meeting we are not only talking about destinations, but also of new products, like a gastronomy route integrated by the four countries. Additionally, through the bloc, we can take advantage of Mexico’s air connectivity with various world capitals,” said Omar Macedo, representative of Mexico Tourism Board for the Pacific Alliance.

Meanwhile, Joanne Ellis, Chile’s Vice-ministry of Tourism Advisor, pointed out that the Pacific Alliance represents an opportunity for the southern country to exploit, for example, the city’s attractions and the cuisine of Santiago de Chile. “We can also promote southern Chile’s Andean crossings to Argentina, which would be very interesting for Mexican and Colombian tourists. We are also increasingly working on the integrated routes with Peru,” she said.

“Our four countries do not compete with each other, we complement our destinations, gastronomy, routes and connectivity. We must find our strengths, since each country comes with an offer that is differentiated and complementary to a tourist package,” said lastly Enrique Stellabatti, ProColombia’s Vice President of Tourism Promotion.

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES

Next year, Chile will host the IV Tourism Matchmaking event, where US operators focused on the Chinese market will participate for the first time. This meeting will take place during the first half of 2017.

In addition, as part of the efforts to strengthen ties with China, a road show will be held in the cities of Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, from 19 to 26 August, that will include the participation of 28 companies from the tourism sector of the bloc. As many as 480 business meetings are expected to be held.

The Pacific Alliance was created with the aim of building an economic and trading regional integration in the Asia-Pacific market, particularly the Chinese market.

Lima, June 9, 2016

With a series of public-private dialogues, which will take place this year, the regional mechanism advances in the construction of a Roadmap for the Creation of Digital Talent.

September 29th, 2020. The second session of the series of public-private dialogues to accelerate the creation of Digital Talent in the Pacific Alliance took place today. In the session “Bootcamps, Agile Solutions to Accelerate and Transform Talent”, different experts examined the case of bootcamps as a tool to create digital talent, and which have emerged as a response to the context, galvanizing an alternative path to traditional education.

In this second session, the leading specialist of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Juan Carlos Navarro, developed the presentation: “The methodology of the Bootcamps”, where he highlighted the importance of the innovation that is taking place in the education of workers in the area of programming and other advanced digital skills; the phenomenon of the bootcamps is the best expression of this type of innovation, which are playing a central role around the world in responding to the exponential growth in demand for programmers. Latin America must be proactive so as not to miss this development opportunity.

The panel “How are programming bootcamps adapting in the global context and how can they support the creation of digital talent for economic recovery?” was also developed, with the participation of CEOs and founders of Bootcamps from the European Union, such as Olivier Crouzet, Director of Pedagogy, École 42; Boris Palliard, global CEO and founder of Le Wagon; and Nayib Abdala, Partner and Head of Product Strategy Make It Real Camp, which was moderated by Elena Heredero from the IDB.

The conversation revolved around bootcamps and related approaches as a tool for creating digital talent: what works and what doesn’t?; challenges, opportunities and forms of adaptation that bootcamps are facing in the current context of COVID-19; in addition, experiences and recommendations for countries and entrepreneurs were presented.

The webinar was closed by the Director General for Multilateral Economic Affairs of the Undersecretariat for International Economic Relations of Chile (SUBREI), Angélica Romero, who pointed out that “it is urgent for us to be able to address in an integrated way the reduction of the existing digital gaps in our countries with a view to facing the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution”.

As a complement to this activity, a Workshop was held in the afternoon where officials from the four countries talked with regional entrepreneurs about the local experience of bootcamps in the countries of the Pacific Alliance. In addition, working tables were held to share local experiences, lessons learned, possible new actions, as well as topics such as certification, regulation and financing, among others.

Digital Talent Roadmap

The Pacific Alliance countries have agreed to carry out a series of public-private dialogues in order to build a Digital Talent Roadmap in the Pacific Alliance, with specific public policy actions and business initiatives aimed at the creation, acceleration and sustainability of Digital Talent.

The Deputy Ministers of Foreign Trade and Foreign Affairs of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru will attend the XXXIII Meeting of the Pacific Alliance High Level Group (HLG), in Bogota, on March 3.  Government officials of the four countries will gather on the two previous days, as part of the XXIII round of meetings of the technical groups.  The aforementioned events will take place in the headquarters of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Industry and Tourism of Colombia.

The agenda includes areas to be discussed by the following technical groups and subgroups: External Relations, Movement of People, Communication Strategy, Cooperation, Institutional Affairs, SMEs, Innovation, Gender, Immigration and Security, Foreign Trade Single Windows, Regulatory Cooperation, Trade Facilitation and Customs Cooperation, as well as the Committee of Experts of the Business Council.

The Technical Group of External Relations will agree on proposals aimed to deepen ties between the Pacific Alliance and the 42 observer states. This Group seeks to promote joint initiatives with observers in the framework of the four pillars of the Pacific Alliance: free movement of goods, services, people and capital.

As a result, the Pacific Alliance aims to move forward in the completion of the mandates of the Paracas Declaration. In this context, the HLG will make the necessary assessments and give directives in order to prepare the XI Summit of the Pacific Alliance, to be held on July 1, in Puerto Varas, Chile.

The Pacific Alliance is a regional integration mechanism established by Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru on April 28, 2011. The full members of this alliance concentrate a population of 216 million people and represent 38% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Latin America and the Caribbean.

February 26, 2016

Alianza del Pacífico (febrero 28, 2018). El proceso de negociación de la Alianza del Pacífico con Australia, Canadá, Nueva Zelandia y Singapur (Candidatos a Estado Asociado- CEA), permitirá al bloque avanzar en el cumplimiento de uno de sus objetivos fundamentales: convertirse en una plataforma de integración económica y comercial de proyección, trayendo beneficios directos para los empresarios de los cuatro países, en especial con la región del Asia Pacífico.

Los elementos clave de estas negociaciones para Chile serán la posible incorporación de nuevas materias, que actualmente no están contenidas en el Protocolo Adicional de la Alianza del Pacífico. Estos son: Defensa Comercial, Pymes, Cooperación, Propiedad Intelectual, Medioambiente, Laboral, Género y Comercio, Entrada Temporal de Personas de Negocios, y Empresas comerciales del Estado y Política de Competencia. La incorporación de estos capítulos permitirá abrir nuevas oportunidades para el país, al incorporar los temas que ya están marcando –y lo harán cada vez con más fuerza-, la agenda del comercio internacional del futuro.

En términos comerciales, no sólo se abren mejores oportunidades para productos chilenos en países del Asia Pacífico, sino que también en acumulación de origen, en los futuros Estados Asociados.

Finalmente, se destaca la similitud política y comercial de los CEA con los miembros de la Alianza del Pacífico, lo cual sería beneficioso para alcanzar una integración profunda y más dinamismo en el comercio global.

Para mayor información comuníquese a: Alianza_Pacifico@prochile.gob.cl

Alianza del Pacífico (febrero 28, 2018). El proceso de negociación de la Alianza del Pacífico con Australia, Canadá, Nueva Zelandia y Singapur (Candidatos a Estado Asociado- CEA), permitirá al bloque avanzar en el cumplimiento de uno de sus objetivos fundamentales: convertirse en una plataforma de integración económica y comercial de proyección, trayendo beneficios directos para los empresarios de los cuatro países, en especial con la región del Asia Pacífico.

Los elementos clave de estas negociaciones para Chile serán la posible incorporación de nuevas materias, que actualmente no están contenidas en el Protocolo Adicional de la Alianza del Pacífico. Estos son: Defensa Comercial, Pymes, Cooperación, Propiedad Intelectual, Medioambiente, Laboral, Género y Comercio, Entrada Temporal de Personas de Negocios, y Empresas comerciales del Estado y Política de Competencia. La incorporación de estos capítulos permitirá abrir nuevas oportunidades para el país, al incorporar los temas que ya están marcando –y lo harán cada vez con más fuerza-, la agenda del comercio internacional del futuro.

En términos comerciales, no sólo se abren mejores oportunidades para productos chilenos en países del Asia Pacífico, sino que también en acumulación de origen, en los futuros Estados Asociados.

Finalmente, se destaca la similitud política y comercial de los CEA con los miembros de la Alianza del Pacífico, lo cual sería beneficioso para alcanzar una integración profunda y más dinamismo en el comercio global.

Para mayor información comuníquese a: Alianza_Pacifico@prochile.gob.cl

Ciudad de México (Junio/1/2018). En el marco de la XXX Reunión de Grupos Técnicos de la Alianza del Pacífico, que tuvo lugar en Ciudad de México, se realizó el Primer Taller sobre Contrataciones Públicas. El evento contó con la participación de funcionarios de los cuatro países miembro de la Alianza del Pacífico y tuvo como objetivo dar a conocer los alcances del Capítulo sobre Contratación Pública del Acuerdo Comercial, así como brindar al sector privado información relevante de la oferta y el mercado de compras públicas
en la región.

Este Taller es una muestra del compromiso en la integración de los países de la Alianza del Pacífico, para el diseño de herramientas en:

a. La divulgación de información,
b. El desarrollo de actividades de capacitación, y
c. La identificación de mejores prácticas internacionales.

El segundo Taller se realizará en el marco de la siguiente Reunión de Grupos Técnicos en el mes de octubre, en Santiago de Chile.

Este tema cobra relevancia ya que actualmente las compras públicas representan a nivel mundial entre el 10% y el 15% del Producto Interno Bruto de los países, de cuerdo a cifras de la Organización Mundial del Comercio.

Según la Guía de Contrataciones Públicas, el valor total de las transacciones anuales en compras públicas de la AP alcanza los US$245.808 millones, lo que representa para Chile US$ 33.237 millones, Colombia US$64.285 millones, México US$ 127.632 millones y para Perú US$ 20.654 millones.

La inclusión de las contrataciones públicas en el acuerdo de la Alianza del Pacífico permite que los empresarios de Chile, Colombia, México y Perú tengan acceso a más alternativas al momento que se quiera efectuar una compra, representadas en mejores precios y condiciones que se traducen en un gasto más eficiente.