The IDB launched a new social entrepreneurship program designed to support small productive, social and community development projects for the poorest sectors in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The program was announced at a December 1998 conference entitled "Twenty Years of Small Projects: Strengthening Social Entrepreneurship in Latin America and the Caribbean." The meeting, held at IDB headquarters in Washington, D.C., was devoted to exploring the lessons learned in nearly 500 microenterprise projects financed by the IDB with some $209 million over the last 20 years.

The new program differs from existing Bank microenterprise finance vehicles in that it is specifically focused on the poorest sectors of society. Projects funded under this effort will emphasize simpler financial instruments and wider and more flexible conditions for borrowers.

During the conference, the IDB's Multilateral Investment Fund and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) also signed an agreement to promote the strengthening of financial institutions that support microenterprises in Latin America, in order to help them become self-sustainable.
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CAPITAL MARKETS

The IDB on Nov. 10, 1998, launched a $1 billion global bond issue. The bonds pay a semiannual coupon of 5.375 percent and mature on Nov. 18, 2008. JP Morgan Securities and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter were the joint lead managers of the issue. Proceeds of the issue will be used to finance the social and economic development of the IDB's Latin American and Caribbean member countries.
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APPOINTMENTS

Oswaldo Zavala has been named the IDB's alternate executive director for Chile and Ecuador. He was executive president of Cointegra, S.A., in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

John C. Rahming has been named general manager of the Inter-American Investment Corporation. He had been serving in that post on an interim basis.

B>Jacques Rogozinsky has been named deputy general manager of the IIC. He most recently served as special advisor for private sector issues in the office of the vice president of the IDB.

Marta Tvardek, who was previously in charge of the Policy, Planning and Support Office of the IDB's Human Resources and Administrative Services Department, has been named chief of the Employment Division within the same department.

Tvardek succeeds Ezio Vermiglio, who has been appointed senior advisor to the IDB's human resources manager.

Joel Riley , previously senior deputy manager of the Human Resources and Administrative Services Department, has been named chief advisor in the Office of Executive Vice President.