According to IDB Chief Economist Ricardo Hausmann, Latin America's relatively unscathed emergence from Asia's financial turmoil is due to its "stronger immunological system," the result of recent banking and other financial reforms.

Speaking before a meeting of finance ministers from the Americas in Chile in early December, Hausmann said that while Latin America could yet be affected, the countries would be in a good position to recover "because our systems and institutions are solid."

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DEBT RELIEF FOR GUYANA

Guyana will be the second country in the Americas, after Bolivia, to receive debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The IDB will help relieve the country's debt by a total of $48.1 in present value, the largest amount to be provided by a single multilateral financial institution. Debt reductions under the HIPC initiative are granted to countries with a very low national income and a continued need for international concessional assistance, but that also have a good record of economic and social reforms.

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BRAZIL VIES FOR ECOTOURISTS

Brazilian authorities used the occasion of an international ecotourism conference in Rio de Janeiro in December to announce the launching of a $200 million program to develop this fast-growing industry in the vast Amazon region. The new program, which is being prepared with the help of a $10 million IDB loan, will include financing for infrastructure and ecotourism facilities.

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BOOST FOR REGIONAL BANK

The presidents of the five Central American countries were on hand Jan. 19 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, for the inauguration of a new $20 million headquarters for the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI). The bank, which in past years reflected the problems of a region beset by civil conflicts and economic turmoil, is now "a new bank, for a new Central America, in a new century," said its president, Manuel Pacas Castro. At the inaugural ceremony, IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias signed a loan for $100 million to CABEI to finance small and medium-sized businesses.

HIPC - Guyana (press release)

IDB loan to CABEI (press release)