Panama – Central American presidents gathered here agreed Tuesday to create a regional electricity generating company.
The heads of state also instructed their foreign and trade ministers to achieve “the necessary coordination” to continue the negotiations for an association agreement with the European Union that were initiated last May at the EU-Latin American Summit in Vienna.
According to the statement, the presidents told their ministers in the energy sector to prepare for the founding of a Central American Electric Generating Company.
Guatemalan President Oscar Berger told EFE that the new company will be structured around future generating projects and will go into operation once the Central American Electric Interconnection System (SIEPAC) is up and running, a situation planned for 2008.
Those taking part in the summit meeting were Martin Torrijos of Panama, Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, Oscar Berger of Guatemala, Manuel Zelaya of Honduras, Tony Saca of El Salvador, Belize Prime Minister Said Musa, and Nicaraguan Vice President Alfredo Gomez.
With SIEPAC “we will be interconnected and that will allow us to think in terms of great (integrated) generation projects” to supply the Central American area, with the powerlines in place and the capability of distributing to every country, Berger said.
SIEPAC is a project designed to establish a 1,830-kilometer (1,137-mile) transmission grid between Guatemala and Panama with a 300-megawatt capacity at a cost of $320 million.
Berger said that his country and Mexico have already begun an interconnection project that will be complemented with SIEPAC.
The summit of Central American presidents preceded an expanded session also including Mexican President Vicente Fox and his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, as a special guest.
