Public remarks by IDB President Ilan Goldfajn, with Japanese Vice Minister Atsushi Mimura
As prepared for delivery
Salutations
- Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, Atsushi Mimura,
- Distinguished Governors and Heads of Delegation;
- Members of the Delegations;
- Executive Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Inter-American Investment Corporation;
- Senior Management of the Bank, IDB Invest and IDB Lab;
- Ladies and Gentlemen, friends,
Intro
- It’s great to be with you here in Japan.
- I want to thank Japan’s government for graciously hosting us and offer a special thanks to Vice Minister Atsushi Mimura for joining us this morning. Thank you, Minister Mimura, for also hosting such a great dinner last night. We had a very productive conversation.
- I’d like to share a few thoughts on Japan’s ties to Latin America and the Caribbean, on Japan’s relationship with, the IDB, and finally on some of the opportunities that our region offers Japan and the other countries represented here in this room.
Japan and LAC
- Japan’s ties to Latin America and the Caribbean have grown closer.
- We see this as a natural relationship based on shared values. The region shares Japan commitment to democracy, freedom and the rule of law, values also shared by the IDB.
- The region is also home to more than 60% of the world’s Japanese emigrants and their descendants. Today, there are 3.1 million Nikkei living in Latin America and the Caribbean, connecting our regions.
- When Colombian reggaeton singer J Balvin wanted to design the cover of his album, Colores, he got Japanese artist Takashi Murakami to help him.
- Japan has also contributed to humanitarian and disaster relief work in Haiti and Honduras.
- And Japan’s government has provided over $30 billion to the region through its Official Development Assistance.
- Japanese experts also helped develop some of the most iconic modern industries in Latin America, including Brazil’s soybean sector and Chile’s salmon industry.
- Exports to Japan grew at nearly 6% annually, outpacing LAC’s export growth to the rest of the world (5.3%).
- Japan’s Nippon Steel has had a decades-long partnership with Brazilian steelmaker, Usiminas. And, of course, iconic Japanese brands are household names across the region. Honda, Toyota, and Nissan announced last year investments of over $1 billion in the region, creating over 2,500 jobs in Mexico alone.
- And let me just spend a moment, as a Brazilian, on one of the interesting sport partnership between our regions.
- If any of you are Formula 1 fans, you know that one of the greatest racers of all time was Ayrton Senna. Senna was incredibly talented. But even Senna needed the most powerful engine in the world to become the legendary champion that he was. And for that, he partnered with Honda.
- Honda’s vision for excellence led it to develop a V6 turbo engine that won 15 out of 16 Gran Prix races in a single year, including Senna’s first F1 championship.
- As Japan’s ties to Latin America and the Caribbean have grown closer, so have the ties with Japan and IDB.
Japan & the IDB
- Japan was the IDB’s first non-regional member and has been a fantastic partner to the IDB. Over the years, our partnership with Japan has grown stronger. And next year I look forward to celebrating Japan’s 50th anniversary at the IDB.
- I’m also delighted to say that this year we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of our IDB office here in Tokyo.
- Since Japan joined the IDB in 1976, our partnership has deepened through co-financing with JICA, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and Japanese Trust Funds.
- For more than 35 years, Japanese Trust Funds have supported low-income, small, and vulnerable countries, contributing grants of almost $487 million to over 680 projects, including 22 projects worth over $18 million in 2024.
- To share just one example, last year Japanese Trust Funds supported the Pan-American Highway for Digital Health, which is revolutionizing healthcare systems across Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Our work with JICA has also been a highly effective platform for co-financing transformative projects in the region.
- The IDB-JICA CORE co-financing Framework has gone from a $1 billion initial commitment from Japan to $4 billion last year. In the coming years it will continue to focus on co-financing IDB operations to improving infrastructure, reducing disaster-risks, expanding health coverage, lowering poverty and addressing climate change.
- For example, we're cofinancing a project in the Dominican Republic to improve solid waste disposal, benefiting 3.7 million people and reducing emissions.
- And IDB Invest worked with JICA on its first equity deal in the region through Dr. Consulta, a Brazilian health-tech company that provides primary care.
- And IDB Lab and JICA jointly financed TSUBASA, a transformational startups program that's supported 27 Japanese start-ups in LAC, leading to eight technical cooperation projects so far.
- One of those projects is Aldeia em Foco (Village in Focus), involving the Japanese startup OUI Inc., from the Keio University School of Medicine. They're proposing to use artificial intelligence to remotely diagnose eye problems like cataracts for indigenous communities in Brazil.
- This project is a great example of how global connections are essential to address critical development challenges like healthcare for Latin America's rapidly aging population.
- And just yesterday JICA announced their first private sector fund with IDB invest with a new $1 billion co-financing fund to strengthen private-sector growth in LAC.
- On behalf of the IDB, I thank Japan for this remarkable partnership and for its steadfast commitment to the IDB and to people across the region.
- Japanese banks have also been strong partners for IDB Invest, both as dealers—Daiwa, Nomura—and investors (banks, life insurance companies and asset managers). All told, Japanese firms have invested over $460 million in IDB Invest bonds, especially in sustainable, green, and social bonds.
- This partnership has driven progress.
LAC’s Growing Role in Global Solutions
- Looking at the future. LAC could be at inflection point. For decades, LAC was viewed primarily through the lens of its challenges. But today, the world needs LAC.
- The region is central to solving global challenges in three key areas:
- Climate and Biodiversity: The Amazon rainforest absorbs a quarter of all CO₂ captured by land on Earth. Preserving this ecosystem is a global imperative.
- Clean Energy: LAC holds two-thirds of the world’s lithium and 38% of its copper, both critical for the green transition.
- LAC is also quickly developing its vast potential to produce and export green hydrogen, which could help Japan’s need to import it.
- Food Security: LAC produces enough food to feed 1.3 billion people. As global supply chains shift, LAC can play a larger role in ensuring food security, not just in the region but around the world.
- Finally, in a fragmented world, we see potential to promote more regional integration, not just within LAC but between LAC and Japan, and the other IDB member countries.
The IDB’s Role: Unlocking Private-Sector Investment
- At the IDB, we recognize that the private sector is key to seizing these and other opportunities. That’s why we’re transforming ourselves to better support private enterprises:
- 40% of our lending is now directed to the private sector through IDB Invest and IDB Lab.
- A $3.5 billion capitalization of IDB Invest and a $400 million replenishment of IDB Lab will further scale our ability to finance businesses.
- We’re positioning the IDB as the “private sector MDB”—leveraging our public-sector expertise to create synergies that benefit private investors.
BID for the Americas: A Gateway to Opportunity
- Let me share just one more example of how we’re working to help companies in Japan and other IDB member countries seize opportunities in the region.
- We designed our program, BID for the Americas, specifically to help companies from your countries to tap opportunities by focusing on three pillars.
Procurement
- In procurement, the opportunities are evident. The IDB finances an annual average of $4.1 billion in project procurement, creating over 12,000 contracts.
- Over the past decade, the IDB financed about $1.4 billion for Asian companies across 82 contracts.
- We see a lot of opportunity for growth for Japanese companies to seize more opportunities in the region, including through IDB contracts.
- We're committed to helping them do this and we've developed tools to simplify access to our contract opportunities. For example, we created:
- A Bidder Center: A centralized resource to navigate IDB tenders.
- A Build the Americas App: Provides early access to infrastructure projects and business matchmaking.
Trade and Investment
- We’re actively facilitating partnerships through matchmaking.
- ConnectAmericas.com helps companies access purchasing announcements, connect with LAC firms, and explore new business communities.
Financing
- With IDB Invest’s expansion, we’re increasing financing options for Japanese firms investing in LAC
Looking Ahead
- BID for the Americas is just one of many programs that open opportunities for companies in your countries, to the mutual benefit of our region and yours.
- It’s just part of our effort to do more to achieve our three core objectives of reducing poverty, tackling climate change and boosting sustainable growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- It’s also why we’re implementing the IDBImpact+ reforms that we’ll discuss later today, to increase the impact and scale of our work.
- Among other things, these reforms will help expand our lending capacity to $19 billion by 2030—unlocking $50 billion over the next decade.
- To ensure those resources deliver meaningful results, we’re implementing a new Impact Framework anchored in a Mission Scorecard with clear, evidence-based metrics.
- We’re also upgrading our financial tools to help countries react to disasters, mobilize private resources and deliver high-impact projects.
- Meanwhile, reforms to IDB Invest and IDB Lab will mobilize more private capital, like the originate to share model, foster entrepreneurship, and expand innovation to address development challenges.
- In total, as we prepare for our Annual Meetings in Santiago in Chile, we’re working on 11 reforms and initiatives to highlight there, all of which increase the scale and impact of our work, making IDBimpact+ a reality.
Close
- Let me close by reiterating my thanks to Japan for hosting our meetings here in Tokyo.
- Our partnership with Japan—and with each of the countries represented here today—is critical not just to improving lives in Latin America and the Caribbean but to helping us all meeting shared global challenges.
- I’m looking forward to the conversation’s we’ll have here in Tokyo.
- Thank you.