News Releases

Mar 19, 2007

IDB Annual Meeting opens with a call to reduce inequality and extend development benefits to low-income majority

Speakers also highlight the challenges of energy, technology, and competitiveness

GUATEMALA -The 48^TH Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank was inaugurated today with calls to provide opportunities for the low-income majority of Latin America and the Caribbean to derive greater economic and social benefits from the region’s recent period of growth.    

Speakers addressing the meeting's inaugural session also emphasized the need for the IDB and the region to meet the challenges of future reductions of fossil fuel use by fostering the production of sustainable energy sources to sustain economic development, provide new commercial opportunities and reduce the threat of climate change. Among the participants were five heads of state from the region.

In his speech, IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno hailed the rising income levels in the region, due in large part to macroeconomic policies that have resulted in fiscal responsibility and control of inflation. However, he said, these gains “have not been sufficient to extend the benefits of economic growth to all sectors, regions and social groups.” The great challenge facing the region, he said, is to provide equal opportunities to all. 

Moreno also pledged that the IDB will use its comparative advantage not only in financing projects to help reduce poverty and create new opportunities, but also in providing strategic support to others working toward the same ends.

Along with many other speakers, Moreno pointed to the lessons of the Popol Vuh, the Mayan creation myth, which sets forth rights and obligations for society. “Among its most important laws,” stated Moreno, “is that ‘no one will be left behind’.”

The IDB president also highlighted the need to develop sustainable energy and new kinds of fuel to “make sustainable and viable the levels of consumption and the life styles that we have attained.”

He said that ethanol and bio-diesel offer the greatest promise, not just to reduce fossil fuel use, but also as a major economic opportunity for countries in the region to make greater use of their natural resources. He acknowledged Brazil’s international leadership in this area, which he said could benefit other countries through technology transfer.

Moreno also paid tribute to Antonio Ortiz Mena, second IDB president, who passed away last week. He declared that Ortiz Mena was a “true hemispheric statesman” who left an indelible mark on the Bank and the countries of the region.

In his welcoming statement, Guatemala City Mayor Alvaro Arzú recalled the end of the 36-year civil conflict in his country a decade ago, when he was president, and the IDB’s support for the subsequent process of peace and reconciliation.

Outgoing president of the board Paulo Bernardo Silva, planning minister of Brazil, echoed the statements of other participants when the hailed the region’s encouraging economic growth in past decades, but warned that the region nevertheless has grown less than other developing regions, undercutting efforts to improve standards of living. He praised the IDB’s recently announced move to forgive the debts of five member countries, a development in which Brazil played a major role.

Silva also emphasized the role of science and technology in driving the region’s economies in the future, and called for a regional network of research institutions and high-tech enterprise clusters.

Guatemalan Finance Minister Hugo Eduardo Beteta Méndez-Ruiz, who was elected the new chairman of the IDB Board of Governors, hailed the “reconfigured political map of the region” as well as the macroeconomic policies that have enabled the countries to improve stability. The region, he said, has learned from the financial crises of the 1990s.

He also emphasized the crucial role of microfinance, an area in which he said Latin America has taken world leadership. He urged greater efforts to support sectors, such as microenterprise, that offer high social returns.

Belize Prime Minister Said W. Musa also voiced support for microenterprises, saying that there is no better way to reduce poverty.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet praised the IDB for its standing with he region both “during good times and during not such good times.” Speaking of her own country, she said the major challenges are to consolidate development gains to benefit all sectors of society.

She called innovation, production and competition the major goals for creating more equitable growth, adding that development and social inclusion are two complementary concepts.

Bachelet signed an agreement between her country and the IDB for the establishment of a fund to support technological innovation in Central America and the Dominican Republic. Chile has been a leader in developing and applying technology that has enabled the country to compete successfully on the world market.

 El Salvador President Elías Antonio Saca noted the great advances made by the region’s countries, but also the challenges, including the consolidation of democracy. He praised the IDB for its role in  region’s successes, and emphasized the key importance of education and health for raising standards of living. In addition, he said that standards of education must attain Asian standards if the region is to compete on the international market.

José Manuel Zelaya, president of Honduras, hailed the debt reduction initiative, that will benefit his country, saying that it will provide “one more opportunity” for addressing the problems of poverty.

Zelaya also emphasized the importance of free trade, but added that the commercial gains must be translated into opportunities to reduce inequity and improve living standards.

Oscar José Rafael Berger, president of Guatemala, closed the sessions with an appeal for governments to team up the private sector to find new ways to provide essential services for the low-income majority. “We have a great deal left to do,” he said.

He noted the advances made in Central America as a whole, as well as the “profound changes” that have taken place in Guatemala as a result of its success in overcoming conflicts and forging peace and democracy.

 The 48^th Annual Meeting of the IDB's Board of Governors is being held jointly with the 22^th Annual Meeting of governors of the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), the IDB affiliate that supports the development of small and medium-size firms in the region through equity investments and loans.

The boards of governors, the highest policy-making bodies of these institutions, include finance ministers, presidents of central banks and other senior officials. The IDB has 47 IDB member countries, which include 26 borrowing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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