Bolivian President Luis Arce. PL Photo.
Lima, August 29 (RHC)-- One of the concerns raised Monday at the Summit of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) by Bolivian President Luis Arce was to combat hunger and poverty and create a food production center.
Before his peers from Colombia, Gustavo Petro; Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, and Peru, Pedro Castillo, he said that such measures are necessary given the possibility that the international crisis will worsen hunger and poverty.
He said that the CAN must adopt "urgent measures because hunger and poverty may increase, affecting mainly the most vulnerable populations" of the Andean countries. Policies must be applied to face the impact of the international financial crisis.
The Bolivian President also proposed strengthening the rapprochement between the CAN and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), founded by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay and joined by Bolivia and Venezuela, the latter in the process of incorporation.
He pointed out that there must be a process of complementation and convergence between both integrationist blocs and highlighted the relations with the European Union and the Euro-Asian Community.
He also advocated prompt measures for the production and liberalization of import tariffs on medicines and other products to face the current pandemic of Covid-19 and those that may come.
Arce advocated the definition of mechanisms for incorporating into the CAN of countries that were members of the bloc (Chile and Venezuela) and new members (such as Argentina).
For the Bolivian leader, it is also necessary to prioritize providing agricultural inputs for food production.
In terms of tourism, he proposed a joint effort to offer the world common packages to visit attractions in the four member countries.
