E-018/2000
February 2, 2000
OAS SIGNS COOPERATION AGREEMENT
WITH
CENTRAL AMERICAN INTEGRATION BANK
The Organization of American States (OAS) today signed an agreement with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) to cooperate on programs that will benefit their member countries.
Secretary General César Gaviria lauded "the vital role the Bank has played in Central America’s development over the last few decades" and announced that certain projects that have been identified will serve as a model for the cooperation involving the two agencies. "I am confident the OAS will be working closely with the Bank and that we can reinvigorate the Bank’s leadership in the region," Mr. Gaviria stressed.
The Central American Bank’s Executive President José Alejandro Arévalo said "…the signing of this agreement is of special significance…" to combat poverty. He explained that the accord seeks to promote, coordinate and facilitate joint projects and partnership activities for which the Bank has various financing mechanisms. "We are here getting back on track with the relationship CABEI and the OAS enjoyed in the 1980s, tailored to the twenty-first century," he said.
Under the agreement signed today, the OAS and CABEI agreed to pursue regional cooperation projects and jointly sponsor conferences, seminars and other academic and/or scientific endeavors. The recently-created Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development will be the executing agency for the OAS side. This is the first agreement the OAS is signing with an international cooperation and development institution since the Inter-American Development and Cooperation Agency came into being at the beginning of the year.
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