In the Andean Community Vice-Ministers and Labor Experts meeting
Wagner proposes a new Andean Social Agreement

Lima, August 26, 2004

During the opening ceremony of the 12th Meeting of Andean Community Vice-Ministers and Labor Experts, Andean Community Secretary General, Ambassador Allan Wagner Tizón, proposed a new social agreement leading to the integration, development and competitive international insertion of the Andean countries.

Ambassador Wagner pointed out that the next Andean Conference on Employment, to be held in Lima in November of this year, and the Andean Summit on Development, which will gather the Subregion’s Presidents in Cusco, next December, “will contribute to the delineation of a new social agreement to strengthen our integration and overall development”.

Concerning the Andean Conference on Employment, the CAN Secretary General indicated that, in addition to the active participation of the Andean Business and Labor Consultative Councils, the involvement of the Ministers of the Economy and Economic Development is essential to “secure the necessary convergence between the active policies prevailing in the labor market and the economic policies which will facilitate the generation of productive employment”.

Furthermore, Ambassador Wagner remarked that “one of the results of the Andean Conference on Employment should be the approval of an Andean Labor Charter, that would make it possible to guarantee workers’ rights within a context of development and competitiveness”.

With respect to the Andean Summit on Development, scheduled for December 7 of this year, when CAN Presidents will get together, Ambassador Wagner stated that the event will be “an opportunity for joint reflection about our own development model based on the potential of our peoples, supported by a complementary territorial development strategy, which will reinforce development and social cohesion centers, and a sustainable State capable of ensuring the continuity of development policies in a context of governance capability and consolidation of democracy”.

The 12th Meeting of Andean Community Vice-Ministers and Labor Experts, which was held at the CAN General Secretariat’s head office, was also opened by the Peruvian Minister of Labor and Employment Promotion, Javier Neves Mujica, acting as Chairman of the Andean Labor Ministers Advisory Board.

Minister Neves noted that the chief objectives of the Board he chairs include the regulation of Andean Instruments on Social Security, Labor Migration and Work Safety and Health, as well as the preparation of a new instrument relating to Professional Development and the arrangements necessary to hold the Andean Conference on Employment.