Washington hosted last 5-6 March a meeting of the UPAEP working group (WG) on Technical Co-operation, attended by representatives of Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica (chair), Ecuador, Spain, the United States of America, Panama, Portugal and the Dominican Republic, besides the secretary-general of the Postal Union.
The UPAEP secretary-general presented a report on the use of Technical Co-operation Funds during the 2002-2006 period, with the aim of providing information on technical co-operation trends in the region covered by the Union. In her opinion, the use of technical co-operation funds will be stimulated following implementation of the Technical Co-operation Regulation (TCR) and the Technical Co-operation Manual (TCM), which were examined and modified based on suggestions from the WG member countries, the secretary-general and also the suggestions issued by the Technical Co-operation Colloquium held in May 2006 in Montevideo during the annual session of the Advisory and Executive Council. The final versions of those two documents - TCR and TCM - will respectively be submitted for approval to the Extraordinary Congress and to the Advisory and Executive Council, events scheduled for June 2007 in Montevideo. Regarding the TCM, note the significant work undertaken by Portugal over the last few months, an effort recognised by various WG members after presentation of the Manual produced by that country.
Also analysed and approved were a set of proposals to introduce changes in the Acts, as envisaged in the TCR and TCM. The Technical Co-operation WG will submit this set of proposals to the next Extraordinary Congress.
Lastly, the working group determined the theme topics to develop after approval of the TCR and TCM: analysis of future co-operation in the region, analysis of the regional co-operation plans and disclosure of the co-operation process.
