March 2001

SEMINAR: WHAT'S HOLDING UP LATIN AMERICA? WHAT SHOULD GOVERNMENTS DO?

IDB SUPPORTS ANALYSIS OF ROADBLOCKS TO ECONOMIC TAKE OFF IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Keys to understanding and overcoming poor performance during last decade

Most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have undertaken macroeconomic reform over the last decade, ranging from fiscal reform and market liberalization to privatization. In many countries, nevertheless, such efforts have produced neither strong economic growth nor a closing of the deep social gaps that characterize the region.

Why is economic growth failing to take off? What is the role of international factors? Do these impact on all countries equally? Which economic policies are producing the best results and which ones are failing? What needs to be done to improve the quality of Latin American public institutions?

An attempt to answer these questions will be made at a seminar organized by the IDB’s Research Department at the Mapocho Station Cultural Center in Santiago, Chile on March 18, prior to the Bank's Annual Meeting.

IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias will inaugurate the seminar, to which finance ministers from the region as well as internationally renowned economists with broad experience in development issues have been invited.

IDB Chief Economist designate Guillermo Calvo will talk about the roadblocks that have contributed to the region’s mediocre economic performance in recent years. He will also analyze the international economic and financial scene and how it could impact on the region’s countries.

Calvo will address the issue of why Latin America has registered a worse economic performance than Southeast Asia over the last decades. He will analyze the problems of public institution quality (such as the fragility of the rule of law and the lack of stability of legal and regulatory frameworks), the persistence of macroeconomic constraints such as inflation and high domestic interest rates, the lack of adequate infrastructure and public utilities, and the lack of adequate human resources policies, especially in education.

Calvo’s presentation will be followed by a panel moderated by Claudio Loser, Director of the International Monetary Fund’s Western Hemisphere Department, in which finance ministers will discuss their countries’ experiences. The invited ministers are Chilean Finance Minister Nicolás Eyzaguirre; Colombian Finance Minister Juan Manuel Santos; Mexican Finance Minister Francisco Gil Díaz; Argentine Economics Minister José Luis Machinea; Jamaican Finance Minister Omar Davies; and Brazilian Planning, Budget and Management Minister Martus Tavares.

The following panel, which will be moderated by Costa Rican Central Bank President Eduardo Lizano, will address possible areas of action to accelerate economic growth in the region. It is anticipated that participants will include ECLAC Executive Secretary and former Colombian Finance Minister José Antonio Ocampo, the President of the Advisory Group to Global Financial Institutions and former Israel Central Bank President Jacob Frenkel, Harvard scholar and former IDB Chief Economist Ricardo Hausmann, and former World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean Shahid Javed Burki.