12.09.96 IDB OFFERS BRIEFINGS IN ALABAMA ON BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN LATIN AMERICA







NR-218/96                                       Daniel Drosdoff (202) 623-2407
                                                     E-Mail: danieldr@iadb.org
                                                Web address: http:/www.iadb.org


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                       September 12, 1996

IDB OFFERS BRIEFINGS IN ALABAMA ON BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN LATIN AMERICA

Half day seminars on Sept. 16 in Mobile and Sept. 17 in Birmingham

Representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank will offer two briefings in Alabama ß in Mobile on Sept. 16 and in Birmingham on Sept. 17 ß on business opportunities that result from the Bank's multibillion dollar lending program for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Larry Harrington, alternate executive director for the United States, and John Ferriter, an IDB business liaison specialist, will address both sessions, explaining opportunities and describing how businesses can compete for more than 4,000 contracts that are awarded annually to provide goods, civil works, and consulting services for IDB-financed projects.
Registration for the half-day briefings begin at 8:30 a.m. on the day of each session.
The briefing in Mobile will be held in the McGowin Room of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, which along with the Center for International Trade and Commerce, is a co-sponsor of the seminar. Congressman Sonny Callahan is scheduled to deliver an opening address at 9 a.m., and Robert Lager, director of the Center for International Trade and Commerce, will deliver an overview of the Latin American market at a luncheon forum.
The briefing in Birmingham, sponsored by the Econonomic Development Partnership of Alabama, will begin at 9 a.m. at the Alabama World Business Center. At 11 a.m. representatives of several Alabama companies that have been involved in IDB-financed projects will speak of their experiences.
Contact for the IDB: Carlos Brezina, Tel. (202) 623-1360; fax 623-1403 Contact in Mobile: James Apple, vice president, economic development, Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, Tel. (334) 433-6951; fax (334) 431-8608. Contact in Birmingham: Michael H. Johnson, Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, Tel. (205) 250-4731; fax 250-4891.