Lima, Sept. 8, 2003. Andean Community Secretary General, Guillermo Fernández de Soto, today proposed the creation of a High-Level CAN Consultative Body made up of local and regional authorities from the Andean countries and convened a Summit of Mayors and Governors for this coming November in Lima. 

He put forward this proposal after hailing the formation of the Andean Cities Network at a meeting that congregated over 20 municipal representatives from the CAN countries in the Ecuadorian capital under the chairmanship of Paco Moncayo, Mayor of Quito and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Ibero-American Strategic Urban Development Center. 

Fernández de Soto expressed his conviction that "Andean integration today, more than ever, needs new actors," and that "the key to our countries’ competitiveness and democratic governance may be found at .. [the local] level."

He went on to express his backing for the initiative that the Andean Cities Network become the seed for creating "an Andean Community consultative body at the highest level," such body to be made up of local and regional officials, to further the action in response to Presidential instructions aimed at strengthening Andean cities and regions as political actors in the integration effort. 

"Only in this way will it be possible for this integration effort to reach the citizens of our countries, an aim that is still to be accomplished in the framework of the guidelines laid down by the Cartagena Agreement," he stressed.

Finally, he called upon the Mayors to seal this alliance with well-defined short and medium-term goals at a Summit of Andean Mayors and Governors that would be held in Lima this coming November in the context of a Meeting of the CAN Council of Foreign Ministers in enlarged session. 

"As Professor Manuel Castells has aptly stated, the role of cities and regions in the Information Era is to be generators of innovation and wealth.  But, even more, they must be the means to link up technology and quality of life in an interactive system, a great network –of continuing intercommunication—in order to produce a virtuous circle of not only economic, but also social and cultural improvement" he stated, emphasizing that "it is to this objective that we should dedicate our efforts with a deep conviction, from this new and promising sphere of integration which is the Andean Cities Network."