This week, Costa Rica hosted the XLIX Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Central American Integration System (SICA, its initials in Spanish) during which a concrete step forward on border control cooperation with Panama was taken, announced the Costa Rican President’s office.

Presidents Luis Guillermo Solís of Costa Rica and Juan Carlos Varela of Panama signed an agreement to create integrated border controls.

The agreement was negotiated by technical teams of both countries, with the assistance of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and aims to establish norms regulating a joint system that will allow for eliminating duplication of procedures, and for an effective registry of the flow of people, luggage, goods, vehicles and other transportation.

The “Integrated Control Center” will be based on the use of non-intrusive technology. Border officials from both countries will base their respective border control procedures out of the shared center.

At the meeting, Solís also handed off the rotating SICA presidency to Panama’s Varela.