At a meeting of the Council of Ministers, three decisions were approved: the Work Plan of the Cooperation Fund for 2022 for a value of USD 720,000; the improvement of management where the functions of the Technical Groups are adopted, and the approval of the expansion of the topics to be handled by the Technical Group of Innovation, which will now be renamed the Technical Group of Science, Technology and Innovation.

January 25, 2022 – One day before the XVI Summit in Bahía Málaga, the Council of Ministers of the Pacific Alliance, formed by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, met in the Bolivar Room of the San Carlos Palace in Bogota.

The event was led by the Vice President and Foreign Minister of Colombia, Marta Lucía Ramírez, and the Minister of Trade, María Ximena Lombana, in her capacity as presidency pro tempore. Also participating for Chile were the Undersecretary of International Economic Relations, Rodrigo Yáñez; for Peru, Foreign Minister Óscar Maúrtua and the Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Roberto Sánchez; and for Mexico, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and the Secretary of Economy, Tatiana Clouthier.

The meeting began with the intervention of Gan Kim Yong, Minister of Trade and Industry of Singapore, special guest at the event, given the signing of the Free Trade Agreement between the Pacific Alliance and Singapore that will take place during the XVI Summit, which will allow the Asian country to become the first Associated State of the PA.

Fabrizio Opertti, Manager of the Integration and Trade Sector of the Inter-American Development Bank; Carolina España, Executive Vice President of the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), and Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), referred to the joint projects between these international organizations and the Pacific Alliance.

Likewise, the Council of Ministers approved the entry of two new Observer States to the Pacific Alliance: Pakistan and Ireland, bringing the total to 61 in this category.

Next, the Council of Ministers approved three decisions of high importance for the mechanism: the Work Plan of the Cooperation Fund for 2022 for a value of USD 720,000 (the call for the presentation of projects by the Technical Groups of the PA will begin in February); the improvement of management where the functions of the Technical Groups (TG) are adopted, and the approval of the expansion of the topics to be handled by the Innovation TG, which will now be renamed the Science, Technology and Innovation TG.

At the meeting, the ministers also reviewed and approved the draft Presidential Declaration of the Pacific Alliance for the Strengthening of the Creative Economy to be signed at the XVI Summit, a commitment to make this sector become an engine of regional development.

Likewise, the ministers discussed the current status of the negotiation processes with the candidates for Associate States, the main achievements of the pro tempore presidency, the agenda of the XVI Summit in Bahia Malaga, as well as the approval of the Presidential Declaration.

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