Lima, June 25, 2008.- Panama is moving with determination toward its entry into the Andean Community as an Associate Member, the delegation of that Central American country announced at the end of a work meeting held yesterday at the CAN General Secretariat in Lima. 

Panama was represented at the meeting by the Vice Foreign Minister, Ricardo Durán; the Advisor to President Martín Torrijos, Nils Castro; the Ambassador of Panama in Peru, Roberto Díaz Herrera, and a technical team.  They were received by the Secretary General of the CAN, Freddy Ehlers, Director General Adalid Contreras and a team of officials of the Andean organization.

Vice Foreign Minister Ricardo Durán stated that, following the instructions of President Torrijos, action is being taken to carry out Panama’s aspiration of moving up from Observer to Associate Member of the CAN.   

“This is a very important step for us, because it means that we will be a part of one of the successful economic blocs in South America.  It gives us the advantage of participating by offering Panama’s facilities as a center for reexport, as a tourist center, for the distribution of products for the world,” he pointed out.   

Dr. Nils Castro, for his part, admitted that he felt very optimistic about the progress of this process, particularly after the meeting held with the General Secretariat, where it was confirmed that the CAN and Panama have numerous areas of agreement.   

He expressed his hope that the process would take less than a year, but recognized that it is hard to calculate how long the segment still lacking will take.  “There are particular features, national specificities that could influence the speed of the process, which, although it is a bloc process, has bilateral elements,” he explained.   

He stressed that Panama has a distinguishing characteristic, which is that the country is very advanced in the area of international services and can offer the CAN important logistics services for its communication with the Atlantic and Asia Pacific countries.  “I imagine that this trait will be one of the elements that will help keep up the speed of the process of building closer relations,” he went on to add.   

The Ambassador of Panama expressed his pleasure that his country is taking “firm steps” to become an Associate Member of the Andean Community, like Chile is today.  He went on to emphasize his country’s South American vocation.  “We are a Bolivarian country and, despite being located in Central America, we have an enduring umbilical cord connecting us with South America that we can never sever, for the First Amphictyonic Congress convened by the Libertador was held in Panama,” he noted.