Address by the President of the Republic, Mr. Alberto Fujimori, at the Closing Ceremony of the Twelfth Andean Presidential Council
Lima, June 10, 2000
  
Ladies and gentlemen:

As President of Peru, host to this Twelfth Regular Meeting of the Andean Presidential Council, and as outgoing Chairman of this Council, I wish to express my satisfaction at the results of this Meeting and at the progress made, and my appreciation to you, Messrs. Presidents, Messrs. Ministers, Messrs. participants, for your contribution to the success of this event and for the honor of your visit.

The Andean Community continues to shape up as the effective instrument, the privileged space for the merging of the history and interests and projection of our peoples and of our nations.

Today we have had the opportunity to make an analysis of these projections, and these projections, carried to fulfillment systematically, with the follow-up and accomplishment of targets, may turn the Andean Community into a world force with its own specific weight, one that is capable of making the voice of these nations of 110 million persons heard.

This time in Lima, we have been able to approach even more closely the targets we set for ourselves.

We have also carried these projections a little further and are showing a capacity and a sense of direction for rectifying some deviations from the path and for adapting ourselves, especially during this decade, to the major changes taking place on the international scene.

Here I am referring in particular to the Community’s choice of a regionalism endowed with sufficient flexibility to allow for the construction of a regional integration strategy while, at the same time, linking us, with all of our own rights and obligations, to other systems or trade blocs operating in the world economy.

It is also the proper moment to honor the Andean Development Corporation, which is celebrating its 30th year of fruitful service to regional development. In the Lima Act, we are setting down our appreciation to the CAF for the outstanding contribution made by this model institution of our system to the financing of our countries’ development and integration.

Two subjects continually come up in these forums, during political discussions; these are democracy and economic development, coupled with differing valuations, approaches, and perceptions. I’m sure we can all agree, however, that democracy and economic development are part and parcel of our reality, which, as I pointed out yesterday, requires an in-depth analysis in order to produce the solutions to our own unique problems.

That is the sense in which we agree with President Hugo Chávez’s concepts of Bolivarian nationalism, to which I would add Andean nationalism. Andean and Bolivarian nationalism, feelings and attitudes that our general education systems should instill in our children and our youth.

I am convinced that the Lima meeting has constituted a further and significant step in the right direction and that we will take other equally important steps, always realistically and objectively. These are two elements that, combined, will allow us to realize our common ambitious mission: the definitive integration of the Andean countries.

A specific target, in the process of being attained, lies on the road to this final integration of the Andean countries. That target is the formation of the Andean Common Market and the Free Trade Area is the process that we must boost in order to have this Andean Common Market in place by the year 2005, while at the same time implementing the Common Foreign Policy that is instrumental in allowing this Andean Common Market, this Community of Nations, this society of 110 million citizens, to make its voice heard in the concert of nations.

The road seems long, rocky at times, requiring the repair of some damages, but we must, with the conviction that exists among the five nations, maintain an unwavering political determination to keep up our pace and --here I would add President Chávez’s concept--, to move ahead even more rapidly.

And what are these well-defined targets? To overcome our backwardness, underdevelopment, and poverty, not through national efforts, but by having the Andean Community of Nations address these problems as a regional challenge.

That cooperation, that coordination, that harmonization of economic, political and social policies must be brought to bear on overcoming the unfortunate material conditions that we are all familiar with and that a large percentage of our people suffer, in order to consolidate democracy in Peru once and for all.

That consolidation of democracy in Peru rests not only on being able to vote in elections, but also on doing away with backwardness, struggling against poverty, and leaving behind our underdevelopment.

My dear Presidential colleagues, Messrs. Ministers, invited participants, it is with deep satisfaction that I close this Twelfth Regular Meeting of the Andean Presidential Council.

Thank you very much for your participation.