During the XLVIII Regular Meeting of the Latin American Council of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA), the Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Clarems Endara, called for changing the outlook on the region and improving integration policies, in the midst of a socio-economic context that represents an opportunity to strengthen convergence and make progress towards regional development.

“We are facing a propitious and perhaps unique moment to implement, in unison as a region, key and systemic actions that contribute to the redesign of the strategies for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean,” Ambassador Endara said during the Latin American Council of SELA, held in Caracas, the headquarters of the organisation.

“The call is therefore to improve our integration policies in Latin America and the Caribbean. We are facing an enormous opportunity, not only to repair the damage caused by this recession, but also to create the conditions for a long and sustainable recovery in the face of the uncertainties of the future,” he added.

Despite the unfavourable international context, the Permanent Secretary of SELA believes that now more than ever, States need to show greater willingness to cooperate and converge, i.e., to achieve greater integration. “It is urgent to look more inward to the region and discover or strengthen the advantages that link and reaffirm our common interests and needs, in order to build better integration that will benefit the more than 640 million inhabitants of our Latin American and Caribbean region,” he underscored.

Ambassador Clarems Endara expressed his gratitude for the support of the membership in his first year in office at SELA, during which he made significant progress in complying with the Work Programme for 2022-2026, approved by the Latin American Council last year.

Repositioning of SELA

It has been 12 months of commitment by each of the members of this organisation, who have worked with the greatest effort not only in the implementation of the multi-year Work Programme mandated by this membership, but also for the repositioning of this body at the service of our nations that demand greater attention from these international bodies. These are nothing more than the extension of their highest interests, represented in the desires for greater and better integration.

“I would like to highlight the fulfilment of more than 2/3 of the activities proposed in the Work Programme for 2022-2026, focused on three areas: Economic Recovery, Social Development, and Digitalisation and Infrastructure; areas whose activities mark a

repositioning of SELA in the region thanks to the joint work with the various organisations involved in our activities in 2022,” he said.

In this connection, he underscored the broad agenda that SELA has strengthened with international, regional, extra-regional and national organisations as part of the promotion of the active participation of the Member States and the cooperation of these relevant organisations, which allowed for making progress towards SELA's main objective: to contribute to greater and better integration of Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Proof of this is the adoption of the Resolution on ‘Cooperation between the United Nations System and SELA’ at the United Nations General Assembly, kindly presented by Bolivia and co-sponsored and supported by a majority of SELA's membership. This will allow us to keep on coordinating with organisations such as ECLAC, FAO, UNWTO, UNCTAD, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, among others,” the Permanent Secretary explained.

Commitment to integration

Ambassador Clarems Endara reaffirmed his commitment to the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean, for which he invited to revalue the region and enhance regional value chains, taking advantage of the regulatory and trade facilitation platform that already exists.

He called for a specific instrument to identify the vulnerability of our food security systems; to establish a catalogue of international cooperation offers that would allow us to optimise the use of the resources we have in the region and to see the region as an expanded zone for the free circulation of goods.

Likewise, he calls for the consolidation of the Network of Digital and Collaborative Ports as a regional strategy of public-private partnership that addresses the issues of digitisation and modernisation of the port logistics chain; the standardisation of procedures for dealing with disasters associated with natural phenomena through a regional protocol, as well as a change in the way we look at and value the contribution of migration to productive and social development in host societies.

“With the support of the Member States and the team of the Permanent Secretariat, we can strengthen SELA and position it, once again, as the regional forum for coordination of relevant regional efforts for integration and cooperation,” the Permanent Secretary concluded.

The Latin American Council of SELA is the highest decision-making body of SELA and is made up of one representative of each Member State. Its functions include considering, evaluating and approving the work programme for the following year; the annual report submitted by the Permanent Secretariat; the budget and financial status of the mechanism; and examining the activities of the Permanent Secretariat and the Action Committees.