Action Areas
Based on the guiding precepts and principles defined by the South American Presidents, Transport, Energy and Communications Ministers of the twelve countries prepared an Action Plan for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America which privileged the approach of Integration and Development Hubs (EID), supplemented by Sectoral Process actions to improve competitiveness and promote the region’s sustainable growth.
Integration and Development Hubs
Integration and Development Hubs are multinational territories involving natural spaces, human settlements, production areas, and current trade flow. The identification and definition of the EID’s sphere of action results from an analysis of the territory based on objective technical criteria anda process of social and political validation through field work.
The main technical criteria used for the analysis of the territory are:
- Geographical coverage of countries and regions
- Existing flows
- Potential flows
- Social and environmental sustainability
Integration Sectoral Processes (PSIs)
The Sectoral Integration Processes (ISPs) aims at identifying the regulatory and institutional obstacles hindering the development and operation of the basic infrastructure in the region, as well as at proposing actions to overcome such obstacles. Some are specific to certain types of infrastructure, but many are multisectoral and in that sense, also differ from some background with similar objectives. In all cases require coordinated action among countries to remove such obstacles to development and promote the efficient use of infrastructure for the physical integration
The Sectoral Processes that worked during the first 10 years of IIRSA are:
+ Instruments for Funding
The objetive was to create alternatives intended to overcome adverse factors that hinder the funding of transnational infrastructure projects. This purpose is particularly important in light of the fiscal difficulties and the decline in FDI flows to the region, which have occurred in recent years.
+ Energy Integration
The South American electric and gas subsectors have a deep relationship with each other, due to the existence of factors such as natural gas reserves, the technological advances of the turbines for electricity generation with natural gas, the expected growth in demand, both electricity as the hydrocarbon, and the requirements of replacing the existing supply infrastructure due to its low efficiency.
+ Border Crossings
The aim was to develop actions intended to transform borders into areas for greater and better integration, facilitating the movement of goods and people throughout the region. The activities carried out have addressed this issue with a multidimensional approach that considers the economic, legal, logistics, and IT aspects of road transportation.
+ Information and Communication Technologies
The objective was to promote greater access to and better use of the information and communications technologies in South America, taking into account the potential and challenges of such use in today’s world. Indeed, these technologies have become crucial to gain competitiveness and, in addition, they create many externalities by improving connectivity. By means of this Sectoral Process, comprehensive solutions are sought to be proposed not only to bring about improvements in infrastructure but also to produce an increase in the contents available on the networks, the enhancement of service provision, and greater access to technologies by low-income populations.
+ Air Transport
IIRSA has undertaken the development of a sectoral diagnostic study on air transportation in the region from the point of view of the traffic policies and technical regulations in force, and on this basis, to propose actions oriented towards the consolidation and integration of the sector at the regional level as essential conditions for the viability of the commercial exploitation of these systems, which have a growing impact on cargo transportation and play a decisive role in the transport of passengers traveling for tourism and business purposes. In essence, the purpose is to gain greater coverage and offer more frequencies as well as lower prices for cargo and passenger transportation.
+ Maritime Transport
Most of the extra-regional trade and intra-regional transport much is done through shipping.Thus, the intention is to promote actions aimed at reducing costs, increasing frequencies, and gaining greater reliability for this mode of transport in order to improve the competitiveness of the region. In a market in which private actors prevail, the rules and regulations adopted by the countries may contribute to these objectives, avoiding the separation of regional and intrarregional traffic that sometimes prevents the efficient use of the available equipment.
+ Multimodal Transport
The physical integration of the South American countries was indisputably regarded as a necessity in order to build the large hubs of regional development in the transport sectors. Therefore, the search for a greater competitiveness in the field of production deserves an assessment of the complementarity between the different transportation modes, giving rise to a multimodal network that should contribute to the sustainable development and improve production competitiveness in the region.