Lima, 23^rd March. More intensive negotiations to form a free trade zone between the Andean Community and Mercosur and the leading role that the private sector could play in regional integration, were the subjects highlighted at the III Andean Business Forum inaugurated today.

The Forum brought together 1,200 businessmen from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, as well as 70 importers from Mercosur and 30 representatives of Chilean companies, who will spend two days in Lima participating in the so-called Negotiating Boards, in the exhibition of Andean export supplies and in the Business Panels designed to analyse topics of interest connected with free trade facilities.

During the opening ceremony, Mr. Juan Carlos Hurtado Miller, Chairman of the Andean Community Commission (CAN), Mr. Sebastian Alegrett, Secretary General of CAN and Mr. Ricardo Marquez, Vice-President of Peru who inaugurated the forum on behalf of President Alberto Fujimori, all stressed the role that businessmen should play in the integration process.

Minister Hurtado Miller pointed out that "the need to face such challenges as the formation of the Free Trade Area for the Americas (ALCA) under better conditions, requires further efforts to negotiate a free trade zone between the Andean Community and Mercosur, as a first step towards the integration of the hemisphere".

He mentioned that the total GDP of both groups amounted to US$ 1.2 billion and that the total population was 310 million people, which clearly demonstrates the existing potential. "The ensuing joint efforts and objectives of both customs unions will make us more capable of facing the foreign relations of both blocks in the future, and to promote the production and exportation of value added products", he added.

"Consequently, I propose that the representatives of the private sector of both blocks attending this event should begin the important task of becoming the protagonists of integration in the region", he stressed.

Sebastian Alegrett underlined the importance of forming a free trade zone between CAN and Mercosur and announced that negotiations for a Tariff Preferences Agreement with Argentina should conclude next week and that a request for similar negotiations had been received from Paraguay.

He said that this meant that the first stage of the CAN-Mercosur negotiations concerning the historical heritage could conclude halfway through this year and the second stage would continue until August next year.

"Consequently, within about a year and a half, we would have a new spot formed by the two blocks, providing new business opportunities for businessmen in all nine countries involved", he remarked, after mentioning that the results of the CAN-Brazil agreement established in April 1999 was having positive results, as revealed by the new commercial lines that had opened up, particularly between Colombia and that Mercosur country.

Mr. Ricardo Marquez, Vice-President of the Republic, mentioned that the "consolidation of CAN and Mercosur should help all South Americans achieve our growth objectives and improve the region’s relations, both within the continent and with different extra-regional blocks".

Marquez also referred to the Common Market that Andean countries hoped to achieve by 2005 and the role to be played by businessmen in progressive business negotiations, taking advantage of the tariff facilities obtained as a result of forming part of a regional block such as the Andean Community.