INTER-AMERICAN COMMITTEE ON PORTS (CIP)

The Secretariat of the Inter-American Committee on Ports (CIP) has supported mandate No. 2 of the VI Summit of the Americas (1) and is currently implementing the 2012-2013 Lima Action Plan “Ports of the Americas: Strengthening Physical Integration and Hemispheric Cooperation for Prosperity”, based on the theme of the VI Summit on integration of physical infrastructure.

In this context, the Third Hemispheric Conference on Environmental Port Management, held on May 22-24, 2012 in Montevideo, Uruguay, emphasized the exchange of experiences among high governmental level and private sector by seeking solutions for environmental protection, security and efficiency to protect fluvial – maritime, coastal and port environments. The conference was attended by 98 representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Uruguay, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Spain as permanent observer to the OAS.

From May 2012 – May 2013, the CIP has strengthened capacities for 341 officials and executives of the port industry in the Americas in the Dominican Republic, Uru guay, Peru, Spain and France. In addition, 47 scholarships were granted thank to strategic partners such as State Ports of Spain, Valencia port Foundation, Port of Le Havre and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).


(1) Note: Mandate No. 2 of the VI Summit of the Americas: “2. To promote the exchange of experiences and the participation of the public and private sectors, taking into account current and future national, subregional, and regional physical infrastructure programs and projects that connect and integrate the Americas, which should, in accordance with our respective needs and full respect for our domestic laws, contribute to the development of synergies of national physical infrastructure agendas.”

Initiative:
Connecting the Americas 2022

Description:
Connecting the Americas 2022 is a regional initiative that seeks to create a business environment to accelerate the development of renewable energy, attract private investments, and bring the best in energy technology to the market with the aim of delivering affordable electricity to all communities in the Americas by 2022. This initiative, which is being led by Colombia and the United States, was launched at the Sixth Summit of the Americas in April 2012. Five months later, the region’s foreign ministers met in New York to further discussions on the strengthening of regulatory frameworks and electrical interconnections to achieve access to electricity for all citizens within a decade and improve the quality of life of the peoples of the Americas.

Activities:
• Support for projects of smart grid technology in Latin America.
• Technical assistance to support the development of commercially sustainable energy exchanges between regions of Central America, Mexico and Colombia.
• Studies of electrical inter-connectivity between Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Kitts and Nevis.
• Ministerial dialogue with countries in the Caribbean, donor governments and regional institutions to discuss possible electrical connections via underwater cables and development of renewable energy.
• Improvement of electricity trade between the US and Canada through the consultative energy mechanism.

Partnerships:
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
World Bank