Luis Ayllón
The executive president of CAF-Development Bank of Latin America, Sergio Díaz-Granados, said yesterday in Madrid that the recently approved $7 billion increase in its assets will allow the bank to invest $25 billion in green growth by 2026, something he considers a priority.
Díaz-Granados took part in a business forum held at the CEOE, which was also opened by the State Secretary for Trade, Xiana Méndez; the Director General of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Inmaculada Riera; and the Vice-President of the employers’ association, Íñigo Fernández de Mesa.
The President of CAF recalled the bank’s trajectory from its creation as an Andean Finance Corporation made up of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, through the incorporation of Spain 20 years ago, to becoming the main financial institution in the region, which is made up of 20 countries and 13 private banks.
“CAF is not just a bank, but the greatest asset of Latin America and the Caribbean”, said Díaz-Granados, who also highlighted “the great commitment” that the institution has with Spain, “as a strategic partner, to make projects of interest in the region a reality”.
In relation to the announcement of the 25.00o million investment, the Corporate Vice President of Strategic Programming, Christian Asinelli, and the new CAF Manager of Climate Action and Positive Biodiversity, Alicia Montalvo, explained that the aim is to promote climate action and the conservation of biodiversity. Specifically, they pointed out that it will increase from 24% in 2021 to 40% green finance in all its operations in 2026, and to 50% in 2030.
At the opening ceremony, the State Secretary for Trade announced that Spain will participate in the expansion of CAF’s assets and insisted that the Ibero-American region “has been, is and will be a priority” for our country.
Xiana Méndez added that recently, trade and investment relations in the region have been strengthened and said that in the last year there has been an upward trend in trade exchanges between Spain and Ibero-America and the levels prior to the COVID-19 health crisis have been recovered, so that “our foreign sector,” she said, “is a key element in the economic recovery of both Spain and Ibero-America”.
He also reiterated the firm commitment of Spanish companies to the region, despite the difficult international context of recent years marked by the pandemic; and he underlined the positive evolution of investments, describing the growth as “spectacular”, making Spain the second largest investor in Latin America, only surpassed by the United States.
For his part, the Vice-President of CEOE praised the role played by CAF in Latin America, a region of “enormous importance” for Spanish companies, which are very present in sectors such as banking, energy, communication, construction and infrastructure management, technological services, tourism and the provision of public services.
Íñigo Fernández de Mesa also stressed the importance of the countries in the region not having unexpected regulatory changes and legal certainty.
Finally, the Director General of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce also praised CAF’s work since the beginning of its operations in 1970 as the financial arm of Andean integration, as well as its actions in the face of the challenges posed by the pandemic.
Inmaculada Riera expressed her “conviction that the agenda for action and strategic alliances in the coming years will be based on public-private collaboration” for the mobilisation of knowledge, technology, innovation and investment, “and in which multilateral financial institutions such as CAF will play a fundamental role”.
