08:58 | Lima, May 24 (ANDINA).
The Seventh Summit of the Pacific Alliance ended Thursday in the Colombian city of Cali with the adoption of a series of agreements concerning economic, educational, tourism and consular cooperation.
The agreements, which will benefit more than 210 million people, were reached by the presidents of the four founding countries - Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
In a landmark decision, the leaders approved Costa Rica’s request to begin the process of joining the Pacific Alliance and welcomed a number of new observer nations, including Ecuador, France, Honduras, Portugal, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador.
In a spirit of brotherhood and cooperation, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and his counterparts from Chile, Colombia and Mexico also agreed to have joint embassies in Singapore and Ghana and further develop their commercial offices abroad.
Other measures adopted at the meeting include removing visa requirements for citizens of members of the group, allowing a common "Pacific Alliance Visa" for tourism and organizing joint advertising campaigns to boost tourism.
Moreover, the Pacific Alliance nations agreed to the elimination of 90% of all import tariffs between the member countries, while the remaining 10% will be more gradually eliminated.
The alliance, formally created last year, also agreed to create a joint cooperation fund, offer more scholarships for students in the four countries and consolidate their network of scientific research on climate change.
(END) NDP/EEP
Published: 5/24/2013