Paralyzed in political terms, the integration of Central American countries continues to advance in commercial terms.
While trade between the Central American countries continues to grow, as well as regional synergy between its companies, governments have been unable in recent years to marry the process of trade integration with the necessary institutional integration.
In an effort to provide comprehensive medical tourism services tailored to industry best practices, the region’s chambers of tourism have come together to work on a manual to help companies in the sector.
It is hoped the regulations will empower professionals and improve the quality of services.
The manual will be used to train those employed in the sector, establishing, among other things, standards of hygiene and health as well as other measures necessary for the proper functioning and promotion of this activity that is on the rapid increase in Central America.
The region's federation of chambers of commerce (Fecamco in Spanish) encourages governments to keep pushing for customs union.
A Fecamco press release states that in meetings held between October 31st and November 1st discussions centered on Central America's political and economic situation that led to a renewed call to the region's governments to consider important topics.
The Central American region is attempting to become more integrated in the way it promotes itself.
Although each Central American country has its own unique characteristics, their geographic proximity and similarities, among other things, are elements that can be used to raise the region’s profile as a worldwide tourist destination.
These were the conclusions reached at the VIII Central American Travel Market, CATM 2011, one of the isthmus’s more relevant tourism industry promotion events, which recently took place in Panama.
In the first six months of the year trade between countries in the region increased by 21.8%.
Data from the Central American Economic Integration Secretariat (SIEC in Spanish) shows that total exports across the isthmus in that period amounted to $14,645 million.
"Regarding imports, the region purchased goods and services amounting to $26,159 million in the first half of this year, 22.8% more than in 2010, according to SIEC
The project will support the standardization of methods to collate prices for fruits and other trading variables, with the aim of improving market intelligence in Central America.
A press release by American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture reads:
Central America, Panama, Belize and the Dominican Republic will share, on a regional platform, information emanating from the markets regarding its tropical fruits, in order to increase the competitiveness of the productive sector and identify export opportunities for agribusiness.
Lawyers from the region met in El Salvador to make progress in the projects entitled 'Central American Mortgage' and 'Dual Nationality'.
The project 'Central American Mortgage' is an agreement that aims to provide mortgage loans in each of the member nations, using property in other countries, who are also part of the treaty, as collateral.
"Dual citizenship in Central America is based on different international treaties which have a principle of reciprocity," reported Lapagina.com..
The partnership will allow Nicaraguan entities to access stock market information market from Costa Rica.
According to Jose Rafael Brenes, General Manager of the National Stock Exchange of Costa Rica, the goal is to facilitate access to stock and share products from Costa Rican market, through the signing of a correspondent agreement between broker members", reported Elnuevodiario.com.ni
A regional brand and slogan will be used as an emblem for the Central American tourism advertising campaign as part of the Action Plan for 2012, Year of Sustainable Tourism.
A statement from the Central American Tourism Council (CCT) reads:
The slogan "Central America, so small ... so big," provides the brand image selected to convey the concept of sustainable tourism throughout the year 2012, by including it in the development of multiple outreach activities to be carried out by the Central American Tourism Council (CCT ), the SITCA and other institutions and organizations inside and outside of the tourism sector in the region in order to make the concept and initiatives for integrated sustainable tourism in the region a valuable one.
The meeting of technical groups from the countries of Central American Integration System (SICA) in El Salvador ended with significant advances
Progress was made in the preparation of some 15 rules of origin and the harmonization of tariffs for different products.
Deputy Minister of Economy of El Salvador, Mario Hernandes, told Reuters, "Decisions made in the technical rounds will be passed up to the technical and deputy ministers of Trade and Economy for approval."
The BCIE has released $67 million simultaneously onto stock markets in Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador.
Reflecting what can be achieved in terms of volume and attracting international investment, the American Economic Integration Bank has issued bonds in three stock exchanges simultaneously.
Investors came from all three countries, with Costa Rica being the market where the most bonds were placed, $31.6 million, followed by El Salvador with $22 million, and Panama, where $14 million were sold.
October is expected to see the unification into a single trade agreement of the treaties that Mexico has signed with Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador).
The announcement was made by Bernardo Mendez, director of economic affairs at the Embassy of Mexico in El Salvador.
"The goal of this process is to give countries facilities such as accumulation of origin.
The project is 90% complete, and will end with the construction of the last 150 km of power transmission lines.
Jose Enrique Martinez, general manager of the company that owns the network (EPR) pointed out that the sections that are most behind are those covering the Costa Rican territory, due to problems created by theft of power cables.
He added to Elmundo.com.sv, "We are in the final phase of this project (...) we expect to complete the bulk of the project this year and finish it completely in the second half of 2012."
A year and a half after the Payments Interconnection System (SIP in Spanish) for the region took effect, Costa Rica has not yet been integrated.
The new system allows banking institutions in Central America and the Dominican Republic to make electronic transactions at a cost lower than that currently charged through private banks.
"However, Costa Rican commercial banks have not yet joined the SIP for several reasons.