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CIDI of the OAS Advances in Preparations for Ministerial Meetings on Culture, Tourism, Education and Sustainable Development

Authorities of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) met today at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington DC, to consider various issues of the development agenda in the Hemisphere, including the preparations and core documents of the various ministerial and Inter-American committees in the field of development that will be held during the second semesters of 2014 and 2015 including the areas of culture, tourism, education and sustainable development.

At the regular meeting, chaired by the Permanent Representative of Bolivia to the OAS, Diego Pary, CIDI delegates analyzed the document prepared by the Chair on suggestions to further the OAS development agenda, which summarizes the positions and views of Member States on the work of the Organization in the area. The paper reflects on the future vision of the role of the Organization, the areas that are considered as priorities, the articulation of the Social Charter of the Americas and its proposed Action Plan, arrangements for more effective cooperation and ways the OAS General Secretariat can work more efficiently. On this issue, the CIDI agreed that the document that resulted from the discussions between countries will be submitted as a recommendation for the discussions underway in the Permanent Council concerning the Strategic Vision of the OAS.

The meeting’s agenda also considered the preparations, documents and invitations to the Sixth Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities of Culture to be held in Port au Prince, Haiti on August 12 and 13th for which a series of informal consultations have been scheduled which seek to support the ministerial dialogue and advance the negotiation of the Draft Declaration of Port au Prince "Cultural interdependence in the Context of Globalization."

Likewise, the meeting moved forward on the preparations for the XXII Inter-American Congress of Ministers and High Authorities of Tourism to be held in Barbados in September, specifically those related to the participants and the order of precedence of the delegations to regional meeting.

With regard to the Sixth Regular Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Education, delegates agreed to convene the meeting on September 11 and 12, 2014, at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC. They also accepted the offer of the Government of Honduras to host the Third Meeting of Ministers and High Level Authorities on Sustainable Development, to be held in Tegucigalpa on October 22 - 23 of 2015.

The delegations present at the CIDI meeting also heard the report of the Ninth Regular Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Ports (CIP) which took place on June 18 - 20 in Washington DC and stressed that it represented an opportunity for the exchange of experiences and to foster cooperation between governments, NGOs and the private sector and confirmed that the meeting aims to consolidate the dialogue on port issues to promote competitiveness in the sector.

As a final point on the agenda, the CIDI elected of members of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development (IACD). The following delegations were elected: Bolivia, El Salvador, the United States, Mexico and Paraguay.

During the meeting the delegations of Bolivia, the United States, Canada, El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Haiti, Barbados, Honduras and Suriname took the floor.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-278/14