Agreement calls for studies on possibility of installing center in reverted areas of Panama Canal. Technical coordination of studies to be provided by IICA
Panama, February 5, 2010, (IICA). The Ministers of Agriculture of Panama and Chile, Victor Manuel Perez and Marigen Hornkohl, respectively; the Under Secretary for Agribusiness of Mexico, Pedro Adalberto Gonzalez; and the Director General of IICA, Victor M. Villalobos, signed an agreement on February 4 calling for prefeasibility studies on the installation of a food handling and processing center in the reverted areas of the Panama Canal.
The agreement will ensure the financial viability of the initiative, making it possible to strengthen ties among producers and exports in the three countries.
At the signing ceremony, the signatories stated “This agreement will lead to increased exports from all three countries to markets throughout the world, consolidate the supply of products offers for export and enable us to access distant markets more effectively and at a lower cost, in order to create employment opportunities, especially for Panamanians.”
By mutual decision of the three countries, the project will be coordinated by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), which must submit a work plan and timetable of activities in two months.
In two weeks, the three ministries of agriculture will appoint a delegate to join the IICA team and participate in the development of the project.
Speaking with the La Prensa newspaper of Panama, Villalobos said “We are providing technical coordination and hope to have in the near future a commercial and technological proposal that will promote the development of competitive advantages for the agricultural products Chile, Mexico and Panama export to third countries.”
The objective of installing the center is to enable the three countries, working together, to access third markets thanks to the strategic position of the Canal. The study will be financed with resources from the Chile-Mexico Strategic Agreement Fund and the Ministries of Agriculture of both countries.
Also participating in the signing ceremony were Larry Maduro, Advisor to the President of Panama, and Ricardo Fernandez, representing the Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of that country; representatives of the Panamanian Association of Exporters (APEX), the academic and private sectors and directors and staff from the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MIDA), etc.
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