Eduardo González
The executive president of CAF (Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean), the Colombian Sergio Díaz-Granados, highlighted yesterday in Madrid the mediating work of Spain before the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has allowed CAF to become an “authorized holder of Special Drawing Rights”, and before the EU, which has materialized in a European investment of 45,000 million Euros until 2027 “to contribute to reduce poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean”.
Díaz-Granados made these remarks during the opening of the annual CAF-Europe Conference, which addressed the transatlantic relationship and future development opportunities and challenges. In his speech, the Colombian leader recalled that, two years ago, during a meeting with Nadia Calviño, “the need to strengthen ties between Spain and Latin America and the Caribbean was underlined, focusing the discussion on two key objectives: capitalizing CAF and facilitating CAF’s becoming an authorized holder of Special Drawing Rights by the IMF.
“Two years after that first visit, and with the collaboration of Calviño, six months ago the IMF approved us as a holder of Special Drawing Rights and in Santiago de Compostela, Spain’s capital contribution will be sealed as part of CAF’s new capitalization,” he said, referring to the CLXXIX meeting of the CAF board (the body in charge of establishing CAF’s policies, appointing the executive president and approving lending operations, the annual expenditure budget, the granting of guarantees or investments), which is being held today in the Galician capital and whose members, the Ministers of Economy and Finance of Latin America and the Caribbean, were received yesterday in audience by King Felipe VI.
Likewise, he went on to recall, “a year ago, when we celebrated Spain’s 20th anniversary as a CAF member country, we met with President Pedro Sánchez and Calviño to devise strategies to strengthen the lasting influence of the Spanish Presidency in the EU Council, as well as its ties with Latin America and the Caribbean.”
“Two pioneering initiatives emerged from that meeting that we have already materialized: the Global Gateway Investment Agenda (the EU agenda to promote investment projects in infrastructure, growth, employment and social cohesion in Latin America) and the meeting of the CELAC-EU Ministers of Economy and Finance”, two “unprecedented proposals that have already yielded tangible results”, he said. For example, he recalled, “last July in Brussels (during the EU-CELAC Summit, promoted by the Spanish Presidency) an investment of 45,000 million euros until 2027 to contribute to reducing poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean”.
At the same opening ceremony, the Peruvian Minister of Economy and Finance and Chairman of the Board of Directors of CAF, Alex Contreras, said that Latin America offers “many solutions to the world’s problems”, particularly for the energy transition, in which “goods produced in Latin America are involved. “We have much to learn from Europe in terms of integration or institutional development, but Latin America can also contribute resources, capabilities and youth,” he added.
Last Tuesday, CAF presented in Madrid a new edition of the Economy and Development Report Global Challenges, Regional Solutions: Latin America and the Caribbean Facing the Climate and Biodiversity Crisis. CAF is a development bank established in 1970 and made up of 19 countries – 17 in Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal – and 13 private banks in the region, which promotes a sustainable development model through credit operations, non-reimbursable resources and support in the technical and financial structuring of public and private sector projects in Latin America. Headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela, it has offices in Buenos Aires, La Paz, Brasilia, Bogotá, Quito, Madrid, Mexico City, Panama City, Asunción, Lima, Montevideo and Port of Spain.
Nadia Calviño
For her part, the First Vice-President and Acting Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, assured that the next meeting of EU-CELAC Ministers of Economy and Finance, which will take place on Friday in Santiago de Compostela, is “a dream come true” for the Government. “Since we came to the Government in 2018, deepening relations with Latin America was one of our priorities, and few times as now we have the opportunity to make these projects and ideas a reality with such success,” she stated.
On these dates, she continued, we are witnessing the “kick-off of a series of acts and events that will be attended by His Majesty the King, Ministers of Economy and Finance of the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the main multilateral financial institutions of the region and other entities that consider the relationship between the European Union and Latin America strategic”.
The main example of this, she highlighted, is the meeting in Santiago de Compostela, where “for the first time in history, the Ministers of Economy and Finance of Latin America and the EU will meet”, a meeting which, she assured, “will not just be about words, it will have substance and concrete content”, because it will help, among other objectives, to create “a stable framework of governance for the follow-up of projects”, to ensure “investments in the region that really change people’s lives” and to address “a reform of the international financial institutions”, an issue that was discussed at the recent G20 meeting in India and which “will be discussed in Santiago to be taken to the UN General Assembly in the coming weeks”.
“The EU’s relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean is particularly strategic in these turbulent times we live in, with a pandemic, a war on Europe’s doorstep and natural disasters,” he warned. “In this new scenario, Spain is there and will do everything possible so that Europe looks to Latin America and the Caribbean as a key partner to design” a “new international order based on multilateralism, democratic values and development with sustainable growth for all,” she said.
“Both regions together comprise 60 countries and represent 14% of the global population and 21% of the world’s GDP; these are impressive figures that should give us the confidence and clarity to move forward together in shaping a new international order that reflects our vision of the world,” she continued. Therefore, “what we are doing will have historical significance and will mark EU-Latin America relations for decades to come, and I am sure that our meetings will be a success and that, looking back in 20 or 30 years’ time, we will reinforce that feeling of pride for having done what the world needs,” she concluded.
Teresa Ribera
Before moving on to the three panels of the conference, the Third Vice President and Acting Minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, warned that “the impact of climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean is tremendous”, so it is necessary to “strengthen the early warning capacity of civil protection systems to ensure that at least the impact on human lives and basic infrastructure can be reduced and generate less pain”. To this end, the existence of a development bank such as CAF is “the common thread that drives a sustainable, real, lasting development that reduces inequalities and generates services; a development that prioritizes the urban agenda, land management and the preservation of Latin America’s vast natural capital”.
During the panels, Uruguay’s Minister of Economy and Finance, Azucena Arbeleche, assured that 93% of her country’s electricity comes from “renewable sources” and that “in wind energy, Uruguay competes with Denmark, Portugal and Ireland”. Likewise, Uruguay focuses its livestock model on reducing methane emissions and maintains the same level of native forest since 2012, all thanks to “long-term economic policies and tax incentives so that the opportunity cost is compensated”. For his part, the Colombian Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Ricardo Bonilla, warned that “the energy transition must be a State policy” and that “the strategy to be proposed must include the implementation of new energy sources and the replacement of traditional energy consumption”.
For his part, the Minister of Finance of the Dominican Republic, José Manuel Vicente, reported on his country’s strategies to close inequality gaps, especially in education, and the US Ambassador in Madrid, Julissa Reynoso, admitted that, although it is “clear” that the US economy is better than Latin America’s, her country faces “similar challenges”. “If we improve internally, we can be better neighbors, better allies, better agents of change,” she said.
