Central American summit calls for further integration in the region

Jul 11, 2006, 22:16 GMT

Panama City - Leaders at the 28th Central American summit called Tuesday for greater integration of the region, as the president of the host country, Martin Torrijos, stressed the progress that has been made in the energy sector.

The heads of state also called for an increase in trade and cooperation among Central American countries in search of growth and development, and advocated more social cohesiveness in the region.

'The region has on the whole made important progress in matters of integration relative to customs and tariffs,' Torrijos said, in a summary of his term as chairman of the Central American Integration System (SICA) - a loose trade union formed in the 1990s to answer and emulate other regional trade groups, such as the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

During the two-day summit, Torrijos emphasized the importance of seeking an integrated regional energy market, and pointed out improvements made with the Central American Electrical Interconnection Project (SIEPAC), to be operational at the beginning of 2008 at the latest, and joint efforts for the use of alternative fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol.

For the future, Torrijos pushed for SICA to work towards building an oil refinery within Central America, to supply oil and its byproducts at more competitive prices. Panama has volunteered to host the enterprise and become a regional centre for energy distribution.

The Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias, will be the next chairman of the group.

In their final declaration, the presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama, the vice president of Nicaragua, the prime minister of Belize and a representative of the Dominican Republic's foreign office stressed the importance of the association agreement with the European Union and the creation of a free-trade area, as stipulated by the joint communiqué signed in May 2006 at the second EU-Central American summit in Vienna.

Torrijos also encouraged his colleagues to assume a leading role at the forum of the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean that will be held in Panama on the October 10 and 11.

The final declaration of the summit also calls for the adoption of a joint programme to eradicate chronic malnutrition in the region.