IDB president participates in New York Forum

On Monday, June 20, 2011, IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno participated in the 2011 New York Forum, hosted by Founder Richard Attias, and taking place at the Grand Hyatt in New York City.

The New York Forum brought together more than 500 business leaders, sovereign fund managers, policymakers and Nobel prizewinning economists to explore solutions to the world’s diverse challenges.

‪As the only multilateral development institution present at the conference, the IDB added a Latin American angle by structuring a session on the topic of multilatinas—companies based in the region that have expanded globally.

President Moreno spoke about the rise of these multinationals and their key role in opening new markets for products and services from Latin America and the Caribbean. Joining Moreno on the panel were some of the IDB’s key partners in the region, including Felipe Jens, president of Odebrecht Participações e Investimentos; Federico Restrepo, chief executive officer of Empresas Públicas de Medellín; Alejandro Ramírez, chief executive officer of Cinépolis; and Karl Sauvant, executive director at the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment at Columbia University.

Within the context of what President Moreno has dubbed the “Latin American Decade,” the panel discussed the internationalization process of multilatinas, emphasizing their access to resources and technology, their innovative business models and the new generation of entrepreneurs that has accompanied their rise.‪

President Moreno also participated in a panel on “Different Sensibilities, Different Results,” joining Cécilia Attias, founder of Cécilia Attias Foundation and former First Lady of France; Beth Brooke, global vice chair of Ernst & Young; and other executives to discuss issues of gender diversity and equality.

President Moreno cited the significant advances women have made over the last decades in the Latin American and Caribbean region in terms of education, economic empowerment and participation in decision-making positions. He discussed the high participation of women in politics in the region, as exemplified by presidents Cristina Kirchner in Argentina, Dilma Rouseff in Brazil and Laura Chinchilla in Costa Rica, among others.

‪The New York Forum and the IDB signed a Memorandum of Understanding in May 2011, pledging to share knowledge, know-how and experiences throughout conferences and in the IDB’s high-level events throughout the region.

Click here to learn more about this year´s New York Forum.