Lima, Nov. 8, 2004. The General Secretariats of the Andean Community (CAN) and the Central American Integration System (SICA) today, in San Salvador, signed a Framework Cooperation Agreement to encourage the building of closer institutional ties between the two integration processes.

Under the Framework Agreement, signed by Allan Wagner, CAN Secretary General, and Oscar Alfredo Santamaría, SICA Secretary General, the two organizations agree to cooperate reciprocally, particularly on matters of common interest and within their spheres of competence and their respective programs of activities.

There are three areas for the joint efforts of the two organizations, according to the Quito Presidential Dialogue on the Future of the Andean Integration Process and its Implications for South America and the CAN-SICA Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in New York during the United Nations General Assembly.

Those areas are: 1) The implementation of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Mechanism shortly to be signed; 2) the negotiation of a free trade agreement; and 3) Andean participation in the Puebla-Panama Plan for its coordination with the IIRSA –all of these within the framework of a progressive and reciprocal association between the Andean Community and Central America.

The CAN and SICA General Secretariats will work closely together on the design and execution of joint projects and the organization of forums, seminars, and exchanges of experts on subjects like the deepening of integration, international trade negotiations, physical integration and infrastructure, investment promotion, competitiveness, political cooperation, exchange of statistical information, tourism, and SME development, among others.

They will, moreover, engage in an ongoing exchange of information and documents about subjects of shared interest that are not subject to confidentiality restrictions and will invite each other to participate in meetings and conferences of common interest.

SICA is the Central American integration organization made up of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama, while the CAN is the Andean integration organization consisting of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.