The Latin American and Caribbean Energy Organization (OLACDE) and the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on integration and regional energy and socioeconomic development.
The document was signed by the Executive Secretary of OLACDE, Alfonso Blanco, and the Permanent Secretary of SELA, Clarems Endara Vera, within the framework of the VII Energy Week, held in Panama from December 12 to 16.
The priority focus is on areas such as complementation, information and statistics, training, studies and projects, and research. It will focus on topics such as the development of renewable energy sources; hydrocarbons; electricity; energy, environment and economy; socioeconomic and energy policies and planning; regulatory and institutional framework; energy efficiency and its socioeconomic impacts; sustainable development; risk diagnostics in energy systems; energy and port development, among others.
“For OLACDE, the establishment of agreements with regional integration platforms is of crucial importance. In this case, SELA, with which OLACDE shares almost equal membership, represents one of the region’s broad-spectrum platforms. It is also a space to broaden the political action of an organization such as OLACDE and to reach out with a message from the energy sector to a broader scope of international relations,” said OLACDE’s executive secretary, Alfonso Blanco, who stressed that OLACDE’s role of assisting and supporting the construction of energy policies and elements of integration among the countries of the region is fundamental.
For his part, the Permanent Secretary of SELA, Clarems Endara Vera, explained that SELA has the mandate to carry out its activities without duplicating functions with other organizations in the region, especially specialized ones.
“We have a mandate from our countries to move forward with an energy agenda. Just this week we had a meeting of all the regional integration mechanisms, where one of the axes was infrastructure and energy. We believe that a specialized entity such as OLACDE is of great support to have a regional agenda that is promoted not only from the desk of the specialty but also as a state policy to work on integration and convergence,” he said.
Endara Vera said that working together will result in agendas that contribute to the countries.
Latin American and Caribbean Economic System – SELA
SELA is an intergovernmental organization for consultation, coordination, cooperation and economic and social promotion. It is comprised of 25 Member States from Latin America. It promotes a permanent system for the coordination of common positions and strategies on economic and social issues, both in international organizations and forums and with third countries and groups of countries; and promotes cooperation and integration among Latin American and Caribbean countries.
