The Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) and the Getulio Vargas Foundation’s (FGV) School of Business and Public Administration will host on Monday, May 31 in Rio de Janeiro the first conference on remittances to Brazil.
The event, which will be held at the Hotel Meridién Copacabana, will bring together representatives of the Brazilian government, multilateral agencies, financial institutions, academic organizations and civil society groups. Brazil Central Bank Governor Henrique Meirelles is due to be the meeting’s keynote speaker.
Conference participants will discuss the impact of these remittances – which according to MIF estimates totaled about $5.4 billion last year – on the Brazilian financial system and local development. They will also analyze how money transference services to Brazil may be improved.
Panelists will present a MIF study on how these remittances are spent, saved and invested, an FGV study on Brazilian migration from the state of Minas Gerais to Boston, Mass., and a study by the Brazilian Association of Dekasseguis on Brazilians of Japanese ancestry who have moved to Japan to work and accumulate savings.
The MIF, an autonomous fund managed by the IDB, has been analyzing remittances since the year 2000. According to its estimates, last year Latin American and Caribbean migrants living abroad sent more than $38 billion back to their homelands, up from about $32 billion in 2002.
The fund is currently financing projects to help Latin American credit unions and microfinance institutions become involved in the remittances market. The goal is to encourage these institutions to establish alliances or partnerships with service providers in industrialized nations, improve their technology and train their staff.
Competition among service providers can bring down the cost of remittances. The participation of these financial institutions in the money transfer business could offer them an alternative source of funds to expand their lending to microenterprises and small businesses and to give people who receive remittances more options for savings and investments.
The Multilateral Investment Fund is the leading source of technical assistance grants for microenterprise and small business development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Over the past decade it has committed more than $900 million to support 600 projects to improve the climate for business and promote efficient markets in the region.
The Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de Empresas of Fundação Getulio Vargas is one of Brazil’s oldest and most prestigious business and public administration schools. Besides graduate and doctoral courses, it also runs a wide-ranging research program on organizational and management issues and public policies and regulations.