SICA, CABEI and German government define priority development areas to bolster cooperation efforts

The Central American Integration System (SICA), the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and the German government held a workshop to discuss and specify the general goals for German cooperation in the Central American region.
Teams of specialists from the three institutions sought to identify new strategies to intensify and streamline current and future initiatives in the framework of the areas of cooperation

Cooperation between Germany and SICA began in 2006, while cooperation between Germany and CABEI began in 2002. Since then, the volume of allocations and fields of action have been gradually increasing. During the workshop three principal areas of cooperation were identified, as well as additional areas to boost synergies and improve the effectiveness of the cooperation.

Principal areas of cooperation:
•    Renewable energy and energy efficiency
•    Environmental and natural resource protection
•    Sustainable economic development

Other areas: Public safety and prevention of juvenile violence and good fiscal governance.

Another noteworthy outcome of the workshop was an agreement about measures to streamline processes with regard to the drafting and documentation of negotiation agreements and consultation between Germany, SICA and CABEI in order to make the process more productive, thereby guaranteeing duly-balanced joint negotiation spaces so that all parties are able to formulate their priorities and interests.
The SICA representatives stressed that regional cooperation should not take the place of bilateral cooperation with the different SICA country members, but should be perceived as additional cooperation with added value for the region.

At the workshop’s closing ceremony, CABEI Executive Vice President Alejandro Rodríguez Zamora thanked all the participants, emphasizing CABEI’s position as SICA’s financial arm in all areas of cooperation and noting that climate change has become a subject of considerable interest for the Bank.

In order to promote the region’s sustainable development, CABEI and the German government through its KFW Development Bank have made allocations for programs and projects under execution and in preparation totaling US$ 450.0 million.