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LATIN AMERICA |
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Brazil and Peru
Create Integrated Border
Area In Amazon States
BRASILIA -
Brazilian president Lula da Silva will be
signing with his Peruvian peer Alan García
next week in Lima the creation of an
integrated zone in the Amazon.
“We’re going to create a border integrated
zone between the Brazilian states of Acre
and Rondonia and the Peruvian provinces of
Madre de Dios, Puno and Cusco with free
movement of people, goods and services” said
Peruvian ambassador in Brasilia Hugo de Zela.
The integration will be completed with the
inclusion of a highway that will connect
both regions, of which only 80 kilometres
are missing on the Peruvian side, and will
definitively open the Pacific basin for
Brazil.
Ambassador de Zela said that the highway
does not cross areas inhabited by indigenous
groups along the bi-national border area.
This is a particularly sensitive issue since
the area is known to have numerous loggers’
groups that have infringed on territories
belonging to indigenous groups.
Nevertheless the ambassador admitted that in
the medium and long term “the traffic and
the highway could affect these indigenous
groups, but both countries are committed to
prevent such a thing from happening”, added
de Zela.
President Lula da Silva is schedule to
arrive in Lima next Thursday.
Lula da Silva and García are also expected
to agree on an inauguration date for the
highway sometime in the first half of 2010
and consider fluvial integration along the
Amazon River from Manaus in Brazil to
Yurimaras in Peru.
The final objective is to link with the
Pacific through the Peruvian port of Paita.
Lula da Silva will also be signing an
agreement covering the free trade zones of
Manaos and the port of Patia, with the
purpose of having Peruvian companies in
Patia assemble digital television components
since Brazil and Peru have adopted the same
Japanese model.
A Peruvian-Brazilian school will also be
opened in Lima where Portuguese language and
Brazilian history will be taught.
Bilateral trade reached 3.256 billion US
dollars in 2008 but so far this year has
fallen to half, 1.47 billion USD in both
cases favourable to Brazil with 2.3 and 1.1
billion USD respectively.
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