The presidents of Mexico and Central American nations will discuss regional energy integration and malnutrition during the Panama City meeting due next Tuesday, Javier Bonagas, head of foreign policy at the Panama Foreign Ministry, told media on Wednesday.

Panama is hosting the 22nd Central American Integration System (SICA) meeting, and will also hold the 7th Presidential Meeting of Tuxtla Gutierrez Dialogue and Negotiation Mechanism next week, a forum consisting of SICA member states (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador,Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) and Mexico.

SICA foreign ministers will meet on Monday to prepare the agenda for the presidents' meeting on Tuesday, which will cover both the SICA and Tuxtla Gutierrez agendas.

Bonagas said that under Panama's six-month chairmanship of SICA, the organization had made progress on a program to tackle childhood malnutrition, concluded the building of an electricity spine which reached Guatemala, and begun negotiations on the proposed Association Agreement between Central American nations and the European Union (EU).

As a first step towards this, the EU has asked SICA nations to reform its custom arrangements to make European goods move tariff-free within the SICA region, which will be a key topic at the SICA meeting.

"Panama participates partially in the region's economic integration. We are integrated in land transport, and we have made important advances in social and political matters," Bonagas said.

The highlight for the Tuxtla Mechanism summit will be the progress on the Central American refinery plan. Panama is one of the countries most likely to host the refinery, which will be supplied by Mexico's state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, if the plan becomes concrete.

Source: Xinhua