Caracas, August 19 (EFE).- The Venezuelan Government and the Andean Community (CAN) General Secretariat met today to define an action plan for expediting regional projects like the energy alliance and the creation of a social fund.  

The meeting was called by the Government of Venezuela, current President Pro Tempore of the CAN, and chaired by Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Alí Rodríguez, and Andean Community Secretary General, Allan Wagner.  

The two officials announced that they were meeting to prepare the CAN’s working agenda up until this coming December on the basis of the guidelines agreed by the Presidents of the Member Countries at their annual meeting last July, together with Venezuela’s working proposals.  

Wagner explained to the journalists that the priority topics on the agenda are the defining of a common tariff policy, the attainment of an Andean energy alliance, the creation of an Andean social fund and the defining of a common Community provision on road transportation.  

These four “major themes must be resolved before next December,” when the Presidents of the CAN Member Countries are expected to meet in special session to address those matters, Wagner added.  

He underscored the importance of achieving an energy alliance “that could be one of the elements that will give new force to Andean integration and, through it, to South American integration.”  

"Another matter the Presidents decided must be accomplished this coming December is the creation of a social fund that will operate as the financial instrument of the Andean social development plan approved by the Andean Foreign Ministers last September,” the Secretary General stressed.  

The fourth "and highly important issue to be resolved is the adoption of a new Community provision on international road transportation, to replace the existing one that has not proven to be effective.”  

What is being sought is to institute "a transportation system more in line with existing conditions in the Andean countries that will make the transportation of goods and people within the Community space more free-flowing,” Wagner explained.  

Foreign Minister Rodríguez, for his part, stressed that the Andean countries are faced with the “challenge of giving new force to the integration process” through mechanisms like “energy integration and the coordination of the various construction plans for roads, highways and railroads, in order to further the exchange processes,” among other things.  

The course of Andean integration also involves “dealing with problems like the poverty affecting all of the Member Countries, through social plans that will give the process a human orientation,” Rodríguez stressed.  

"We have a fairly extensive agenda (…) to leave well-organized, so that problems can be addressed and resolved during (Venezuelan) President Hugo Chavez’s period as President Pro Tempore,” the Foreign Minister added. EFE