SELA has executed more than 30% of its Work Programme in the first four months of the year

The Permanent Secretariat of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) presented to the XVII Special Meeting of the Latin American Council, the highest decision-making body of the organisation, an update on the progress of the Work Programme for 2023 in the areas of Economic Recovery, Digitalisation and Infrastructure and Social Development. 

The Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Clarems Endara, said that the Work Programme for 2023 has a 31% execution rate at the end of the first four months of the year. In the area of Economic Recovery, 21 activities have been planned and 5 have been executed so far. In the area of Digitalisation and Infrastructure, 7 activities were planned, and one activity has been implemented. In the area of Social Development, 16 activities were planned and 8 have been carried out. 

"We are committed to deepening regional integration as an essential component of any strategy of our countries. We contribute to the development of policies that boost trade, that promote greater productivity in Latin America and the Caribbean, resilient economies that allow us to increase the levels of inter-regional and intra-regional cooperation, strengthen our productive chains, move towards sustainable models that are not detached from the people as the centre of any regional policy," the Permanent Secretary of SELA said. 

He also highlighted the convergence achieved with other integration mechanisms such as the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), the Central American Integration System (SICA), the Andean Community (CAN), the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), the Community of Caribbean States (CARICOM), the Presidency pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), and the Presidency pro tempore of the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), with whom progress has been made on a joint agenda to respond to the needs of the membership. "There is a great willingness to commit to a regional agenda. The challenge is to transform these agendas into regional public policy proposals," Ambassador Clarems Endara added.

For his part, the Ambassador of Argentina in Venezuela, Óscar Laborde, who chairs the Latin American Council of SELA, highlighted the progress made by the organisation and its leadership in coordinating with other mechanisms to avoid duplication of efforts and make progress in joint proposals to face the challenges of the region. 

The XVII Special Meeting of the Latin American Council of SELA was held at the headquarters of the organisation, both in person and virtually, on Tuesday, 16 May. 

The Latin American Council is the highest decision-making body of SELA and is made up of one representative of each Member State. Among its attributions are to consider, evaluate and approve the work programme for the following year, the annual report submitted by the Permanent Secretariat, the budget and financial status of the mechanism, as well as to examine the activities of the Permanent Secretariat and the Action Committees. 

In its 47 years of uninterrupted work, SELA has become a regional organisation, carrying out permanent tasks of consultation and coordination, cooperation and joint economic and social promotion, with international legal personality, before countries, groups of nations, forums and international organisations.