Following the guidelines laid down by the Presidents at the Quito Summit, the General Secretariat in 2004 launched an exercise in reflection about the participation of the regions in the Andean integration process.  Its aims were to build a shared vision and to work out a strategy for defining lines of action to improve the regions’ territorial competitiveness and participation in the domestic and world economies. 

The Andean Forum, “The Cities-Region in the New International Economic System. A Look at them from the Vantage Point of Andean Integration,” organized by the Office of the Mayor of Bogotá and the Andean Community General Secretariat, was held on November 25 and 26, 2004 as an initial forum for the exchange of experiences with territorial competitiveness.   

The first study to fuel the debate over the role of the regions in the Andean integration process, entitled “Economic Geography of the Andean Community. Regions: New Actors in the Integration Process,” was entrusted by the General Secretariat to Dr. Edgar Moncayo and presented in November 2003.  The General Secretariat in June 2005 published the results of a new investigation, “Elements for a Territorial Development Strategy,” prepared by the same consultant.  This last study found that the participation of the Andean regions in the integration process has differed enormously, according to their nature. 

Various types of regions have been identified, as cited below: 

·  “active regions” that generate most of the intra-Community trade;

·  “commodity” exporting regions that exhibit high growth rates, together with low levels of competitiveness;

·  agroindustrial regions, where an agricultural transformation is under way toward exports with a high value added;

·  border regions, with low levels of development; and

·  depressed regions with very few links to the rest of the regions.

Given these findings, the study proposes the implementation of a strategy based on joint action among Andean regions with shared characteristics, in order to establish coordinated efforts, save the cost of learning and gain value added by means of horizontal cooperation.  Each Member Country’s varied national, regional and local actors should be consulted about this approach and their contributions added so that it can be turned into an Andean strategy.