In the Montego Bay Plan of Action – approved during the Ministerial Meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development held on 6 November 2009 in Jamaica – the Ministers of Foreign Affairs outlined concrete proposals on the steps to be taken in order to execute the mandates set forth in the First Meeting of Heads of State and Government of Latin America and the Caribbean, held on 17 December 2008, in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.

In their proposals, the Ministers recommended to promote cooperation among regional and subregional mechanisms with the purpose of deepening mutual understanding and identifying possible synergies and opportunities for joint initiatives, while assessing the possibility of starting a process for convergence in four priority areas for Latin American and Caribbean integration, namely: (i) economic and trade dimension, (ii) productive dimension, (iii) social and institutional dimension, and (iv) cultural dimension.

In this connection, during the Meeting of regional and subregional integration mechanisms in Latin America and the Caribbean – conducted in Caracas on 25 and 26 October 2010, with the Presidency of CALC being held by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela until July 2011 – the Permanent Secretariat of SELA was entrusted with the task of facilitating the regional dialogue on the productive dimension of Latin American and Caribbean integration.