Atlanta’s private sector should become involved in the 2005 Summit of the Americas to advise Western Hemisphere leaders on best business practices for developing trade in the region, according to a senior official involved in the summit’s organizing process.
The official, Irine Klinger, is the executive secretary of the Summits of the Americas Secretariat, the administrative body of the Organization of American States (OAS) that governs the Summits of the Americas. The summits are meetings held every four years among 34 government leaders to discuss economic, social and political issues pertinent to this hemisphere.
“A lot can be done by the Atlanta business community to promote the objectives of the Summit – social and economic development – that are important for the region as a whole. You have tremendous examples here for best practices that can be emulated in the hemisphere,” she added.
Reducing the cost of remittances to Mexico, which is one of the themes in next year’s summit, is a good example, Ms. Klinger asserted. She suggested that Atlanta CEOs organize a conference to discuss creating development projects in Mexico that would reduce remittance costs.
Ms. Klinger was in Atlanta last week to talk with Carter Center officials about a possible conference on evaluating the Summit of the Americas convention process and to give a lecture at Emory University.
“Atlanta should continue to give its best effort to win the Free Trade Area of the Americas Secretariat, but even if it does not get the FTAA venue, I think it can still play a very important role in trade in general,” Ms. Klinger told GlobalAtlanta in an interview at the offices of the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism.
The central theme of the 2005 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is hemispheric free trade, Ms. Klinger noted.
If FTAA negotiations, which are scheduled to conclude in January 2005, are not finalized by the time of the summit in the fall of 2005, Atlanta companies can still be involved. They can highlight important trade issues for the hemisphere, including “safety nets” for the region’s poorest and most vulnerable populations, she said.
“We want the private sector to be more involved [in Summits of the Americas] because businesses have a tremendous opportunity to make a difference by enabling people to invest and by creating jobs,” Ms. Klinger said.
“And if we want business to succeed, we can’t have social unrest; we must have educated, healthy societies. Economic, social and governance issues are interdependent, so trade will help improve the lives of people in this hemisphere,” she added.
The Summits of the Americas held a special meeting in January in Monterrey, Mexico, to discuss ongoing issues of poverty in the hemisphere and to engage the region’s 14 presidents who were elected since the last Summit in 2001.
The first Summit of the Americas was held in Miami in 1994, followed by a special session on sustainable development in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in 1996; the second summit in Santiago, Chile, in 1998 and the third Summit in Quebec City in 2001.
Ms. Klinger, a native of Chile, was head of the Pan American Health Organization’s external relations office before joining the Summits of the Americas Secretariat.
For more information, visit www.summitsoftheamericas.org or contact Ms. Klinger at (202) 458-3127 or iklinger@oas.org.