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Inter-American Council for Integral Development Receives 2014 Reports and Conclusions of the VIII Americas Competitiveness Forum

The Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) of the Organization of American States (OAS) today held its first regular meeting of the year under the direction of its new Chair, Niermala Badrising, Permanent Representative of Suriname to the hemispheric Organization. The meeting focused on analysis of the Council's activities during the second half of 2014, confirmation of the holding of the XXIII Inter-American Congress of Ministers and High Authorities of Tourism in Peru and the study of the conclusions of the VIII Americas Competitiveness Forum, held in October in Trinidad and Tobago.

Upon opening the meeting, Ambassador Badrising presented her vision on the focus of the work of CIDI under her leadership over the next six months. "With its activities and mandates CIDI has positioned itself to complement and support the various developmental undertakings of the countries of the Americas." To realize the goal of integral development,” she continued, “we most mold 2015 into the year that catalyzes prosperity with equity, the year that takes on the challenge of cooperation in the Americas.”

The Chair of CIDI said the Seventh Summit of the Americas, to be held in Panama in April, "can certainly be instrumental in advancing the lofty efforts of the Inter-American Council," and therefore "must advance and forge links between all areas of regional development. " "CIDI must advance and forge links between education and human development towards competitiveness across sectors and to bolster human capacity alongside social equality," said Ambassador Badrising, during whose term as Chair several ministerial meetings will be held on issues such as education, science and technology, a meeting of high level authorities of small and medium-sized enterprises, and a specialized meeting on labor market and culture, key issues for social inclusion and sustainable growth. The Chair of CIDI also announced joint meetings with the Permanent Council to advance the Plan of Action of the Social Charter of the Americas.

For his part, Ambassador Neil Parsan, Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the OAS and Chair of CIDI from June to December 2014, presented a detailed report of the progress made during the period under his direction and said that from the beginning of his tenure he identified three specific priority areas: the growth of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), innovation and business development, and workforce development. These issues, he added, “were and are crucial in achieving a sustainable, competitive and diversified socio-economic environment”. The Caribbean diplomat also recalled the events held around such themes as well as efforts "to strengthen the development pillar in the OAS, according to the mandates of the General Assembly."

“In keeping with the Chair’s intention to focus on thematic areas of relevance to the development agenda of the region, various CIDI meetings focused on labor, business and work force development with presentations from notable individuals from the region.” On the issue of sustainable development, Ambassador Parsan described the efforts to bring greater attention to the work being undertaken by CIDI in the area “as well as the issues of sustainable energy in the Americas in the context of the water-energy nexus.” He finally highlighted the contributions of CIDI to the VI Inter-American Meeting of Ministers of Culture and Highest Appropriate Authorities held in Port-au-Prince, Haiti from August 12 - 13, 2014, the XXII Inter-American Congress of Ministers and High-Level Authorities of Tourism held in Bridgetown, Barbados from September 3 – 4, 2014 and to other issues such as scholarships, migration and education.

The Executive Secretary for Integral Development (SEDI) of the OAS, Sherry Tross, presented a summary of the initiatives on which her Secretariat focused its work during 2014, among which she highlighted the efforts to support inclusive and sustainable development in member states and reinforcing synergies within and across the different program areas of SEDI "with which we achieved a more direct link between policy discussions and pragmatic action." She detailed the activities and achievements in sustainable development, in particular the consultation process that led to the creation of the Inter-American Program for Sustainable Development; the efforts to expand cooperation and partnership with educational institutions on several continents and to therefore be able to expand programs of human development and quality education; initiatives related to social inclusion and promotion of decent work; activities to promote economic growth, competitiveness and innovation and projects to support other areas of the OAS General Secretariat.

“SEDI also played an active role in facilitating key policy dialogues and processes among member states aimed at moving forward common development priorities, this included providing technical support to the negotiations to prepare a plan of Action for the Social Charter of the Americas, five meetings of ministers and high authorities in the areas of culture, tourism, port authorities, telecommunications, and competitiveness and the support to the organs of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development,” explained Executive Secretary Tross.

During the same meeting, CIDI confirmed that the XXIII Inter-American Congress of Ministers and High-level Authorities of Tourism will be held in Lima, Peru on September 3 -4, 2015, and that the meeting will focus on the issue of Community-Based Rural Tourism.

Regarding the VIII Americas Competitiveness Forum, the representatives of member countries heard the verbal report presented by Ambassador Neil Parsan of Trinidad and Tobago, host country of the Forum. Ambassador Parsan recalled that the meeting’s central theme was: “The Human Imagination at Work: Driving Competitiveness, Powering Innovation” and was organized recognizing that the creative and imaginative capacity within each human being serves as the source of competitiveness and innovation. He further explained that the theme “sought to explore the possibilities of further harnessing the creative power of the human imagination as a pre-requisite for innovation.”

“This year, a considerable amount of emphasis was placed on the critical role of the private sector in driving innovation. Six critical areas emerged as the sub-themes of the ACF and formed the basis for the panel discussions: energy competitiveness and innovation; financing business, investment and growth; creativity, innovation, research and application; breakthrough innovations and the new generation; services industry as a driver of innovation; and innovation in education,” explained the Ambassador from Trinidad and Tobago who recalled that “the goal of the Forum was to bring together business and government leaders from the Western Hemisphere to stimulate innovative thinking and to enhance public-private partnership.”

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The full video of the event will be available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-016/15