Business

Private Sector of The Americas to meet in Trinidad & Tobago before Summit

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Hemispheric business leaders will have the unique opportunity of influencing the deliberations of the governments of the continent in the Fifth Summit of the Americas during the Hemispheric Meeting of the Private Sector that will take place in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, April 15-16.

The Hemispheric Meeting of the Private Sector, organized by the National Secretariat of the Fifth Summit of the Americas, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Private Sector in the Americas business association, takes place immediately before the Fifth Summit of the Americas, which brings together 34 Heads of States and Government of the Hemisphere, in a moment in which the global economic crisis demands an urgent and coordinated response between the governments, private sector and other actors of the civil society.

The list of speakers at the event include Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Patrick Manning; OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza; US Secretary of Labor Hilda Solís; President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Luis Alberto Moreno; UN Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) Alicia Bárcena; President of the Corporation Andina de Fomento (CAF) Enrique García, and recognized world experts in current topics such as: infrastructure, energy, and communication and information technologies. The event will also count with the participation of US Congressman Gregory Meeks (Democrat from New York).

OAS Secretary General Insulza highlighted the importance of the business meeting and stressed that the Fifth Summit emphasizes the importance of hemispheric cooperation and of the shared commitments between the governments of the hemisphere, the private sector and the civil society.

The forum will also focus on significant topics for the continental business sector such as Investment Opportunities in Infrastructure Megaprojects in the Americas that will have an impact on the regional commerce and competition. The Administrator of the Panama Canal Alberto Alemán Zubieta will explain the advances of the Canal expansion project, and the special consultant for the Central Argentina-Chile Bio-Oceanic Corridor Project Rafael Bielsa will offer details on a project of such magnitude.

The topics of oil, gas and renewable energy investments will be debated by BP-Trinidad and Tobago CEO Robert Riley; John Fox, CEO of Innovation Fuels; Kateri Callahan, President of Alliance to Save Energy; and David Loring, CEO, GTL, World.

Information and Communication Technologies will be the center of debate between leaders of this industry such as Hernán Rincón, President of Microsoft Latin America; Emilio Gilolmo, Head of Public Affairs of Telefónica International and President of Telefónica Chile; Peter Thrush, President of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN); Regenie Fraser, Secretary General of the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organizations (CANTO); Ricardo Olarte, Manager of Intel for countries in Central America, the Caribbean, and the Andean region; and Jorge Cassino, President of the Latin American Association of Information Technology Enterprises (ALETI).

Members of the Latin American Business Council and corporations such as CEMEX will discuss projects on public-private alliances and social responsibility for competitiveness in Latin America and the Caribbean. The forum will issue recommendations on the role of the public-private alliances for the implementation of the objectives of the Summit.

The meeting will issue recommendations based on the debate between businessmen and women of the Hemisphere, senior government officials and representatives of multilateral institutions. The recommendations will be presented Friday, April 17, at the ministerial dialogue that will take place between governments and representatives of the private sector at the Fifth Summit of the Americas.

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