News Highlights
Two Nobel Prize winners address seminar on financing
Brazil’s vice president chaired the event
Two Nobel Prize winners joined a group of other distinguished international economists to analyze the impact of changes in international capital markets and global commerce on the growth of Latin America and the Caribbean in a seminar today.
Participating in the sessions were Nobel Prize laureates Douglass North of Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, and Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University, New York. They were joined by John Williamson, of the Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., who inspired the concept of the Washington Consensus.
Delivering the closing address was Brazil’s Vice President José Alencar Gomes da Silva, who also presided over the technical sessions.
Seminar participants examined opportunities for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and the multilateral development banks to work together to ensure that markets and financial services are not only more stable, efficient and competitive, but also more inclusive, with wide-based accessibility open to all.
IDB to launch initiative for broad-based growth in the region
The IDB will launch an initiative to promote broad-based economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean that focuses on the vast majority of the population historically sidelined from progress, said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno at a seminar today.
Moreno noted that even while Latin American per capita GDP has grown 95 percent since 1960, poverty and inequality levels have barely budged.
“Democratizing commerce will be the real challenge of the 21st century, just as democratizing politics was the great challenge of the 20th century,” he said.
But in order to reach the majority at the base of the economic pyramid, the private sector must find ways to meet the needs of the excluded. Prahalad gave examples of how companies in India and Brazil have succeeded in creating markets for low-income clients, providing them quality goods and services at decent prices.
The broad-based economic growth initiative will be launched at a June 11-13 conference at the IDB’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. At the event the IDB will present an “economic atlas of the majority” with statistics and indicators on low-income people in Latin America and the Caribbean.
President Moreno meets youth on their home turf
IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno today visited the community of Vilha do Senhor dos Pasos on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte to participate in a volunteer event organized in conjunction with the Annual Meeting.
Speaking before members of the community, Moreno said that the best part of youth participation is “the work that young people are doing to build a better city, a better society.”
Also participating were Minas Gerais Governor Aécio Nevas de Cunha, Belo Horizonte Mayor Fernando Pimentel, and the National Youth Secretary Beto Cury.
The event was organized by IDB Youth in coordination with the National Secretary of Youth, the government of Minas Gerais, the municipality of Belo Horizonte, the IDB Ethics, Social Capital and Development Initiative, and Brazilian civil society.
The event included beautification and reforestation activities, a workshop to strengthen job training, and work groups in recycling, video production and AIDS prevention.
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