This week the Annual Meeting of the Assembly of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will be held and the agenda is ambitious. On the one hand, its president, Ilan Goldfajn, has been carrying out a proposal since last year to reform the institution that is expected to be approved during the event. On the other hand, central problems in the reality of the 48 member countries, such as insecurity and climate change, will be discussed in seminars that bring together the private sector with the public.
The majority of the governors that comprise the Assembly, the highest authority of the IDB, are ministers of finance and economy, presidents of central banks or senior officials of the respective countries on the American continent. Additionally, within the framework of the event, leaders from the private sector and representatives of civil society will meet, so more than 3,000 attendees are expected. The event will take place from March 6 to 11 in the city of Punta Canta, Dominican Republic, a country that has not hosted since 1992.
The Assembly is expected to vote on proposals presented to strengthen cooperation between the IDB, the bank's private arm, IDB Invest, and its financial innovation laboratory, IDB Lab. The three organizations make up the IDB Group. This will involve voting on a series of operational and institutional changes that were presented to the IDB Board of Directors in October. At a press conference in December, Goldfajn called his program a cultural transformation within the bank.
“Our new orientation towards effectiveness and development results also requires a cultural transformation in the Bank,” he said, “fostering a culture of impact, rather than amounts lent, requires changing incentives and processes: a global transformation. Next year will be important to advance the changes that will help us achieve this goal.” Goldfajn was elected president of the IDB in November 2022.
Within the framework of the Assembly, thematic seminars will be held that bring together business executives, bankers, public officials and members of civil organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The urgency of investing in education, the transition from hydrocarbons to clean energies, innovation in agriculture and food systems, citizen security, financing to contain climate change and the loss of biodiversity, are some of the issues to be discussed.
Of the 48 member countries, the IDB has 26 borrowing countries, all of them in Latin America and the Caribbean, which receive just over 50% of the voting power on the institution's board of directors. Credit rating agency Fitch Ratings estimates that the IDB disbursed $10.5 billion in loans for development projects in the region last year. In an interview with Reuters in October last year, Goldfajn announced that the IDB Group could expand its lending capacity to $112 billion within a decade, which includes its public and private arm.
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