• It is an electronic platform that seeks to promote the participation of the business, academic and civil society sectors, in order to share relevant information on public procurement, with a view to eliminating barriers to trade and interacting on issues related to said matter in the Pacific Alliance.

December 4, 2023.- This Monday the official launch of the Public Procurement Observatory of the Pacific Alliance (PA), created by the Public Procurement Committee of the PA, took place. Its objective is to generate relevant knowledge, through data collection, carry out analysis, studies or diagnoses and other required actions on specific topics linked to public procurement, which are of interest to the private sector, academia and civil society. This is with the purpose that said knowledge will later serve to contribute to the Committee’s discussions aimed at eliminating trade barriers in public purchases of the PA.

Additionally, through the Observatory we seek to generate greater interaction with the business and academic sectors, with civil society and with the relevant institutions, through the publication of the knowledge generated on the Observatory’s web platform, and the subsequent publication of the aforementioned knowledge. The above, with the purpose of promoting a space for greater reflection on the topics studied by the Observatory.

In this tool, the public from the aforementioned sectors will be able to find information about topics aimed at eliminating barriers and limitations in Public Procurement markets, such as the implementation of trade agreements in this matter, the behavior of public procurement systems, sustainable public purchases, among others.

They will also be able to access a series of documents on the discipline of public procurement, such as studies, statistics, articles whether prepared by the Public Procurement Committee or by invited collaborators; as well as access public procurement news from PA members, and upcoming Public Procurement events in the PA in which they can participate and provide their comments and input.

You can access the Public Procurement Observatory at:
https://alianzapacifico.net/observatorio-compras-publicas-ap/

August 10, 2021.- The official launch of the Pacific Alliance Regional Labor Observatory, supported by the Technical Labor Group of the PA, was held this Tuesday. Its objective will be to contribute to the analysis of the dynamics of the labor market in order to adapt university training programs and facilitate the labor market insertion of university graduates in the Pacific Alliance.

The event, held virtually, had the participation of Adela Maestre, director of Regional Coordination and Integration Mechanisms of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, representing the pro tempore presidency, and Janet Ortega, coordinator of the Technical Labor Group of the PA.

“This observatory will facilitate and strengthen the incorporation of our citizens into the labor market, while promoting the exchange of experiences and opening the space for dialogue to provide approaches that enrich our public policies in this matter,” said Adela Maestre.

During its four-year duration, the project, financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union (EU), will propose a package of activities that will allow the homogenization of methodologies and tools used in the PA countries to measure and control variables related to employment, the labor market and the insertion of professionals into the real sector in areas of knowledge specific to their training.

In addition, the implementation of the labour observatory in Higher Education Institutions will offer students and professionals a reliable system of information on existing opportunities in the region’s industries and will allow them to find work abroad more easily.

“Our accompaniment in this task is given since the Technical Education Group had an approach with the Technical Labor Group in order to present the EMPLE-AP project, which is financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union and in which 14 Universities of the 4 member countries of the Alliance, as well as Universities of the European Union participate,” said Janet Ortega.

The Higher Education Institutions that are part of the EMPLE-AP consortium are: Universidade do Porto -U. PORTO-, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria –ULPGC, Universidad César Vallejo -UCV-, Universidad Continental -UC-, Instituto Profesional Providencia -IPP-, Universidad de Valparaíso -UV-, Universidad Autónoma del Noreste -UANE-, Universidad de Siena -UNISI-, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla -BUAP-, Ilumno -ILUMNO-, University of Bordeaux (U-BORDEAUX), Universidad de Antioquia (UDEA), Corporación Universitaria Unitec and Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, general coordinator of the project in Latin America.

Thanks to the management of the Technical Labor Group, support for this observatory was included in the Lima Declaration of December 2019 under this guideline: establish a working group with the Coordinators of the Project “Observatory for Labor Market Insertion and Strengthening Employability in Pacific Alliance countries EMPLE-AP”.

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

August 18, 2021.- For the first time in history, the Pacific Alliance participated in the framework of Arendalsuka, the most important political and business meeting in Norway. On this occasion, the ambassadors of the Pacific Alliance presented the event: “10 years of The Pacific Alliance: education, culture, and business opportunities”, with the purpose of making known the opportunities and benefits that this bloc composed of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru has to offer to Norwegian entrepreneurs and investors.

During the interventions, the ambassadors indicated that the Pacific Alliance works to strengthen regional integration, with the clear objective of progressively moving towards the free circulation of goods, services, capital and people in the region.

The presence of the Pacific Alliance at Arendalsuka was considered fundamental by the participants of the event. This year there was a greater relevance, taking into account that on September 13,2021 parliamentary elections will be held to define the government that will lead this Nordic country for the next four years. Norway, in addition to being an observer state of the Alliance, has companies such as Yara International, which has a presence in the four countries of the bloc, and BAMA, a company that imports agricultural products from the four member states of the PA to Norway.

The event was well attended, including key players in the Norwegian political arena, such as the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway, Jens Frølich Holte, the media, the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Kingdom of Norway and members of academia.

The event generated interest among the attendees, who recognized the importance of the bloc, as well as the potential for future growth and thus promote Norwegian investment in our respective countries.

PACIFIC ALLIANCE PPT COMMUNICATIONS

October 20, 2022.- The pro tempore presidency of Mexico before the Pacific Alliance held the XXVI Meeting of the Council of Ministers, made up of the ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, with a view to the XVII Summit of the mechanism.

As part of the meeting, the issues of process of accession of Costa Rica and Ecuador were taken up again, during which the members of the mechanism agreed to establish preparatory working groups for the incorporation of these countries as soon as possible into the mechanism. At this juncture, the Council of Ministers received the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica, Arnoldo André Tinoco, as well as Juan Carlos Holguín, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Julio José Prado, Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries of Ecuador to share their request to join the Pacific Alliance as Member States with full rights.

As part of the resolutions adopted, the requests of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Malta as Observer States of the mechanism were unanimously accepted.

Finally, the logistical and substantive aspects of the XVII Summit of the Pacific Alliance that Mexico will host in its capacity as pro tempore presidency, in Oaxaca, Mexico, on November 25, were reviewed.

The Pacific Alliance represents 42.9% of the Gross Domestic Product and 45% of the foreign direct investment flows received in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Promotion Agencies Technical Group of the Pacific Alliance ProChile, ProColombia, the Ministry of Economy of Mexico and PromPerú updated the Pacific Alliance Infrastructure Investment Opportunities Portfolio. This version, in addition to the already 15 interesting infrastructure projects with investment possibilities, has strategic information for investors, such as trade figures, investment, economic growth, population, and reasons why the Pacific Alliance block is an attractive destination to investors. The projects are from the following subsectors:

• Roads
• Water and sanitation
• Railway
• Fluvial
• Ports

For the second year, this initiative will be disseminated through two face-to-face Investment Seminars in Japan and Canada, and a virtual Investment Roundtable in China. The objective is to disseminate information on the advantages for investment as well as promote the 15 most important infrastructure projects in the block.

Read «Opportunities Portfolio»

In the activity, which will be broadcast free of charge and open on Thursday, November 24, aspects and skills that are essential for professional teacher development in an increasingly digitized society will be addressed.

November 15, 2022.- After the pandemic and the closure of educational institutions, teachers had to learn to use digital tools to teach their classes remotely, which contributed to accelerating the technological transformation of society. However, this emergency situation was not necessarily accompanied by professional development that would prepare teachers to use these tools with a pedagogical sense that, in addition to ensuring learning, would ensure an inclusive education.

Aware of the importance of closing this digital gap -which already existed but which worsened with the arrival of COVID-19-, this year the Pacific Alliance created the PA Digital Teaching Network, a platform implemented by Fundación Chile that offers free online courses of high quality to generate capacities of pedagogical use in digital technological tools in teachers and management teams of educational institutions that work at the elemental or primary school level in Chile, Colombia, Mexico or Peru.

On Thursday, November 24, the third virtual seminar organized by this initiative will be held, where the more than 3,000 teachers who have been trained on this platform will be able to participate, but also all those who are interested in learning more about these topics. The activity, entitled “Competences to take advantage of the digital space at school: communication, collaboration and learning support”, will take place at 12:00 p.m. in Mexico; at 1:00 p.m. in Colombia and Peru and at 3:00 p.m. in Chile.

The speaker will be Mariana Maggio, an academic in Education and Technology from the National University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and Director of the Master’s and Specialization in Educational Technology course at the same university. Maggio is also a renowned writer and is the author of the books “Education in a pandemic” (2021), “Reinventing the class at the university” (2018) and “Enriching teaching” (2012).

To participate in the virtual seminar, people who are interested must create a profile on the platform. Then, access the program’s webinar platform and enter your email to confirm your participation in the seminar. The day before the activity they will receive a personalized email with the access address to the seminar.

Those who wish to learn more about the initiative and the training programs can access the Learning for the Future podcast “PA Digital Teaching Network: an alliance to strengthen digital teaching skills”.