Conference Setting
After 9/11, the geographic proximity of Central America has become even more relevant in terms for the United States’ national security and strategic interests. Endemic poverty for large segments of our citizens is the greatest risk to the political and economic stability of our neighborhood. Poverty in the region can only be overcome by creating jobs for our people that are competitive in a global economy. We need to produce in order to prosper. Providing greater market access and accelerating the pace of transformation currently underway in the region are the fundamental building blocks to make our vision, of a safe and prosperous Central America, a reality. The successful negotiation of CAFTA has provided an extraordinary opportunity to galvanize public support for increasing trade and attracting foreign investment flows. This forum, hosted by CCAA and the Salvadoran Ministry of Economy in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Commerce, is the follow-up to the first CompromisoCentroAmérica forum held in Nicaragua in October 2002.

Conference Purpose
Bring together the key decision-makers from the U.S. and across the region to create a greater sense of urgency in confronting the challenges affecting the future well being of Central America and in taking full advantage of the opportunities that will present themselves post-CAFTA. CCAA’s mission, Strengthening The Third Border, is centered on promoting democracy and private sector-led sustainable economic development in the Caribbean Basin. By joining the public and private sector leaders of the region, we expect to solidify the consensus that increased trade and investment flows to the region are essential to win the battle against poverty. We envision this meeting serving as a catalyst to rally the forces needed to successfully ratify CAFTA in the national assemblies of the region and the U.S. Congress while bringing new momentum to the much-needed integration of Central America. For this effort to be successful, business leaders from across the region must aggressively pursue the opportunities to use our lands, hands and minds to make and move things of value. They must work together with a common purpose and take the initiative in forging the public/private sector partnership required to overcome the challenges of increased global competition for many of its businesses and worsening poverty for many of its citizens.

Conference Objective
Obtain the participants’ compromiso (commitment) to ratify CAFTA as a crucial step in consolidating the process of development in Central America. The granting of market access through a commercially meaningful free trade agreement is a key element in raising standards and attracting foreign investment to the region. Fundamentally, we recognize that foreign investment is a necessary prerequisite for economic development. Traditional sources of development finance - domestic savings, government-to-government aid, multilateral agencies assistance and commercial bank lending - are no longer adequate. While these are mitigated somewhat by remittance flows, it is still not enough. Our goal is to attract greater and more stable investment flows by creating a constructive private/public sector dialogue to aggressively pursue what we have termed a Transformation Agenda - accelerating the pace of capacity building, integration, harmonization and the impartial application of the law throughout the region. Our objective is to provide a forum for the private sector to clearly identify the opportunities in a number of critical sectors available to them post-CAFTA and define the specific actions they will take to make them profitable business ventures.

Conference Methodology
Each concurrent industry session will be conducted in a roundtable format where the moderator will engage the discussants and participants in an active dialogue aimed at providing 3 to 5 responses to two fundamental questions: Part I - What are the opportunities available to the private sector post-CAFTA? Part II - What actions must be taken by the private sector to benefit from these opportunities? Participants should not spend their time describing the difficulty of the present situation (Where are we now?). Instead, emphasis should be placed on sharing their vision of the future and more importantly, on what must be done to turn that vision into reality. Participants should reflect on 3 broad criteria as they relate to these discussions: What needs to be done to ratify and implement CAFTA? What needs to be done to attract more foreign investment to the region? What needs to be done to encourage a more constructive public/private sector dialogue? The moderators will be responsible for conveying the roundtables’ main conclusions to the rest of the forum’s participants in the Moderators’ Panel presentations. Each industry sector will also be asked to identify specific topics suitable for a subsequent "Best Practices" study to make recommendations that could be implemented expeditiously across the region. Execution will be the key in converting opportunities into action.
Constituents

• U.S. Government – Representatives from Commerce, State, USAID, TDA, OPIC, EXIMBANK US Ambassadors
• Regional Governments – Heads of State, Ministers of Economy, Trade Negotiators, Investment Promotion Officers
• Multilateral Agencies –CABEI, SEICA, IADB, World Bank, IMF, OAS/IACD, BLADEX
• Multinational Companies – CEOs, Presidents of Latin America & Caribbean, Regional & Country Managers
• Traditional Family-owned Enterprises – Owners/Directors, CEOs, GMs, INCAE country & competitiveness committees
• Private Sector Organizations – Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Cupolas, AMCHAMs, AACCLA