Venezuela and SELA prepare for next regular meeting
November 16, 2022
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Representatives of Venezuela and the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) are meeting as part of the preparations of the South American country, which will host the next regular meeting of the organisation, to be held on 29 and 30 November.
The information was released through a message posted on the Twitter account of the Deputy Minister for Latin America and the Caribbean of the People's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rander Peña, who met with the Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Walter Clarems Endara.
The meeting was held in the Casa Amarilla to evaluate the work agenda of the Regular Meeting of the Latin American Council of SELA, where Peña emphasized that the work agenda will be ambitious, but possible, with the efforts of all SELA member countries, according to a press release.
He stressed that this space would serve as an important platform for the exchange of experiences among different countries, and highlighted its importance in the current economic context, which demands innovation and resilience after the world went through so many undesirable situations.
The Latin American and Caribbean Economic System was created on 17 October 1975, through the Panama Convention, as a regional intergovernmental body to consolidate a system of consultation and coordination of economically beneficial strategies for Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole.
It brings together 25 countries of the region: Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Clarems Endara: Integration is key to overcome food vulnerability in the region
Now more than ever, the region needs to strengthen integration to overcome food vulnerability, resulting from the economic situation caused by the pandemic, said the Permanent Secretary of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA), Ambassador Clarems Endara, during his participation in the 1st Forum: “Globalisation, Reglobalisation or Deglobalisation,” organised by the Latin American and Caribbean University (ULAC).
“The region has a surplus in foreign trade in food, but it is heavily deficient in fertilisers, and 78% of the fertilisers used in agriculture in our countries are imported (...) We have serious problems to maintain food security in the region. We should start thinking about where the region will get the 78% of fertilisers that are imported,” the Permanent Secretary said.
In his presentation, he explained that Latin America and the Caribbean enjoy 85% trade liberalisation, out of which we only take advantage of 17%. “We have the platform, we have the infrastructure, we have the regulations, we have the political will, but for that we have to work on integration,” he added.
SELA has designed a Work Programme focused on the areas of Economic Recovery, Social Development and Digitalisation, in order to comply with the mandate of the membership and strengthen the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals.
“There is much to value and much to converge in order to strengthen a regional agenda that allows for collective progress towards integration (...) What does globalization give us? Large open markets. What do we have to do as a region? Take advantage of this platform in a much more organized and convergent way,” the Permanent Secretary of SELA explained.