PANAMA CITY — The Organization of American States (OAS) launched a new cooperation platform on Sunday that will bring together governments, businesses and civil society organizations from North, Central and South America to stimulate economic growth and social development in the region. The announcement was made during the forum ‘Toward a Prosperity Agenda: Positioning the Americas for the New Wave of Opportunities’ in Panama City, a day ahead of the 56th OAS General Assembly. The forum brought together policymakers and entrepreneurs to discuss how the region can better respond to new economic opportunities.
The initiative aims to better leverage the strengths of the Americas, including its stable security environment, strategic geographic location, human capital, entrepreneurship, natural resources and high biodiversity. OAS Secretary General Albert Ramdin presented the new platform during a dialogue with industry representatives.
“Economic growth must lead to opportunities for communities, decent jobs, environmental protection and a real contribution to national development”
Carlos Guevara Mann
According to him, the platform must be more than a consultation body. “This is a structured cooperation mechanism that should move from dialogue to concrete results. We want to create a powerful and unique architecture in which governments, companies, international partners, investment banks and commercial banks work together to develop the region,” Ramdin stated.
Panamanian Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Guevara Mann emphasized during the forum that economic competitiveness today is no longer determined solely by profit figures or logistics performance. “The companies that will lead the future are not necessarily the most profitable, but those that create shared value. Economic growth must lead to opportunities for communities, decent jobs, environmental protection and a real contribution to national development,” said Guevara Mann.
The Executive Secretary for Integrated Development of the OAS, Isabelle Valois, also expressed her support for the initiative. She stated that both the public and private sectors are needed to translate the continent’s prosperity agenda into tangible results. “Neither governments nor companies can solve these challenges alone,” Valois said.
Growing interest
The forum addressed several strategic themes, including energy supply and critical raw materials, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, skills for the labor market of the future and the promotion of trade and investment. A separate session was devoted to the strategic importance of the Panama Canal as a hub for international trade, investment and regional integration.
According to the organizers, a total of 410 business representatives had registered to participate in the meeting. According to the OAS, this number underlines the growing interest in closer cooperation between public and private parties in the region.
