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Seventeenth Meeting of Senior Officials of the Forum for East Asia – Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC)
1. Introduction The Seventeenth Meeting of Senior Officials of the Forum for East Asia – Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) was held from 24 to 26 August 2016 in Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala. At the opening of the meeting, by means of his welcome speech, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, Carlos Morales, stated that such Forum collaborates with the work of the “2030 Sustainable Agenda”, showing that both regions wish to join efforts for the development. It was also mentioned that the FEALAC seeks financial contributions for the SMEs, in order to optimize the human resources and contribute the “17 Sustainable Development Goals” proposed by the United Nations. 2. State of the cooperation projects, activities and future plans
During the meeting of officials, some members of the FEALAC Cyber Secretariat gave a brief speech about its projects and activities, a proposal for the improvement of the “FEALAC Project Review Survey”, and a cooperation request. Regarding the activities carried out by the FEALAC, the following were presented by the authorities:
workshop of the Secretariat of the FEALAC;
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updating and maintenance of the official Web page (including the movement of official documents such as declarations and final reports, the strengthening of the connectivity between member countries, as well as the supply of a space for the interaction between focal points);
publications, among others.
After that, it was highlighted that in recent years the member countries of the FEALAC expressed a shared need for strengthening the role of the Cyber Secretariat as the main communication window and for facilitating the exchange of information about the experiences of the members with their knowledge when carrying out national and regional projects.
As stated in Annex 2, arising from this meeting, before the Seventeenth Meeting of Senior Officials and in order to meet such demands, the Secretariat introduced the previously mentioned “FEALAC Project Review Survey” on the occasion of the Seventh Meeting of Foreign Ministers (FMM VII) in 2015. Such survey was introduced in order to contribute to the systematization of the initiatives of FEALAC, providing more efficient means for assessing the progresses and results of the projects of the member countries. The purpose of the survey is to provide a tool that manages better and revises the status and results of the national and regional projects.
Besides, as the Secretariat felt the need to facilitate its institutionalization, subsequently it presented the Proposal for the improvement of the “FEALAC Project Review Survey” in the Sixth Workshop of the Cyber Secretariat de FEALAC held in May 2016, waiting for the approval in the current meeting. This improvement proposal aims at promoting the efficient management of the review process, establishing a specific calendar and encouraging the exchange of experiences about the administration of the project, by creating a secure file within the Zone of the Focal Point.
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Once adopted, the proposal generates an immediate effect and the calendar would be applied as from January 2017 on the projects implemented during 2016. 3. Working groups
Likewise, during the Meeting of Senior Officials, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala invited all the coordinators of the working groups to submit a brief summary of the sessions of the working group.
The meetings of the working groups dealt with several issues, to wit: -
culture, youth, gender, and sports;
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science, technology, innovation, and education;
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trade, investment, tourism, and SMEs;
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sociopolitical cooperation, and sustainable development.
In each meeting, the member countries participated presenting each of their contributions to the issues dealt with and their plans to improve such issues, and they expressed their wish to continue uniting Latin America with East Asia by means of the different cooperation areas.
On the other hand, the countries had a dialogue about the contributions of the FEALAC for the fulfilment of the “20130 Agenda for the Sustainable Development”, and made a declaration based on the combination of the economic, social and environmental dimensions. The members consider that it is important to think regionally, to meet with better ideas, and to promote the international cooperation, in order to benefit their populations. They made it clear that the countries of the FEALAC want to promote new partnerships consider that will benefit the cooperation towards 2030.
They also stated that it is important to think regionally in order to achieve an effective cooperation in the FEALAC, including the strengthening of the relations among all the
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members of the Forum. They expressed the conviction that the collective efforts will help to reduce the inequalities in all the countries and that the objectives may be achieved not only by means of the hard work of all the members but also by means of the delimitation, so as to establish the roles that all share and in order to reach an objective in common, such as the Sustainable Development. 4. Towards a more dynamic FEALAC The Republic of Korea proposed the paper “Towards a More Dynamic FEALAC”, which was welcomed by the member countries.
It was agreed that the member countries would study:
To create a Troika System and to consider holding a troika meeting between the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
The establishment of a fund of the FEALAC, whose details will be discussed by means of the follow-up meetings.
The possibility of having a FEALAC Summit in order to celebrate its Twentieth Anniversary.
Likewise, it was suggested that all the member countries should continue developing these initiatives, and submit them to the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting for their consideration. In this instance, some members referred to the need of a further debate and consultations referred to the Summit. 5. Proposal for a new action plan
The Republic of Korea submitted a summary whose content were the elements of the “New Action Plan of the FEALAC”, which was agreed by the member countries to continue developing until the Eighth Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
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Such plan includes three pillars:
Strengthening of the institutional framework of the FEALAC.
To promote national and wide projects of the FEALAC.
Partnership with Regional and International Organizations.
Each pillar was presented with many initiatives to be developed in the next years. It is to be noted that during the meeting the Eighth Foreign Ministers’ Meeting was reported on, which will be held on 25 May 2017. On the other hand, the Workshop of the Secretariat will be held in March.
6. Appointments of Co-Presidents
Regarding the appointment of new regional Coordinators and Co-Presidents of the Working Groups, it was established that the member countries holding the CoPresidency of their respective working groups will stay in office, for next year at least.
The countries of East Asia accepted by consensus the leadership of Laos offering itself as the next Regional Coordinator for East Asia, and Venezuela put forward as the only candidate of the Latin-American region. On the other hand, some countries said they would submit the issue to their respective Governments.
7. Closure
The member countries, Co-Presidents, Guatemala, and Korea were in charge of the closure of the Seventeenth Meeting of Senior Officials, thanking the officers and the other representatives for the work done in the Forum.
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