Developing Banking Is Enhanced as an Instrument of Anti
Cyclical Public Policy
ALIDE 39th Meeting of the General Assembly ended with the Statement
of Curaçao
The changes in the world economy and the
challenges of finance for the development of Latin
America and the Caribbean was the main topic addressed
at the Thirty-ninth Regular Meeting of ALIDE Annual
General Assembly, carried out in the World Trade Center
in Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, on May 19 and 20,
2009.
Opening Session
This meeting, organized together with the
Curaçao Development Corporation (Korpodeko), gathered
distinguished figures of the international financial
community. In the opening session, the Ministry of
Finance of the Netherlands Antilles, Ercilia de Lannoy
mentioned that in order to prevent the effects of the
international economic crisis, the government had
implemented measures to attract investment, boost the
tourist sector, as well as ongoing active social
policies to mitigate the effects of the crisis among the
population. The opening speech was in charge of Eugene
Rhuggenaath, Curaçao Minister of Economic Development
and Tourism, who referred to the country’s development
strategy towards the future. He also highlighted the
important role played by Korpodeko in the development of
Curaçao and announced it would be enhanced with an
injection of resources to improve its capacity to
mobilize investments and by financing productive
projects, especially in the tourist sector.
Development Banking Together with the
Government for Economic Encouragement
During the meeting, it was pointed out
that, together with the general politic measures, the
governments in Latin America and the Caribbean have
promoted a series of specific actions to counteract the
adverse effects of the international crisis on the
domestic economy, and many of these actions have
national development financial institutions as the
executive branches. It is in this context, when the
presence and action of development banking as an
instrument of financial public policies have acquired a
greater relevance in fulfilling their anti cyclical
function, without losing sight of a long-term vision and
a permanent policy of income distribution.
Sectors and Programs
In the short-term, developing banking has
tried to help countries to overcome the economic crisis,
by making more resources available to the productive and
social sectors. In this way, financial institutions have
granted, with their own resources, and with funds
provided by the State, new credit lines for the
industry, agriculture, social housing, SYMEs,
international trade, infrastructure, and other sectors.
Additionally, they have carried out other actions such
as for example, increase the debt limit of financial
intermediaries to provide them with more financial
resources; grant securities for the titles issued by the
companies; establish funds for infrastructure;
restructure debts and extend the maturity of debts;
offer preferential credits to specific segments, such as
small urban and rural enterprises, and for purchasing
social houses.
New Challenges, Innovation and
Technological Development
On the other hand, it was pointed out
that the current situations represents an excellent
opportunity for development banking to reaffirm with
concrete actions and good results, according to its
mission and mandate, the role it has in financing the
development of productive and social sectors. This
involves new challenges for development banking in the
identification and support to new sectors or activities
-as for example, biotechnology, the generation of
renewable technologies, etc, - that will show the
direction of the future development of the countries.
This entails the development of capabilities and
financial instruments for innovation and technological
development, to go side by side with other measure to
drive governments in the areas of science and
technology.
In addition, these institutions have the
challenge to promote and support sustainable production
and consumption, in a way to preserve our environment
and to guarantee a safe life for the generations to
come.
Reaffirm Their Post-Crisis Validity
In this sense, this situation is not only
an opportunity for development financial institutions to
become more relevant in the short term, but also to
project well into the long-term, as solid, visionary,
well-managed institutions, and their validity is
reaffirmed after the crisis.
ALIDE’s President, the Brazilian banker
Roberto Smith, pointed out that we live times of worry
in the junction between short and long terms
expectations, that require development financial
institutions to be alert and very careful with anti
cyclical actions and to reinstate trust, but something
really substantial has to change. In this context, they
have to go back to real economy and to the generation of
employment.
Statement of Curaçao
As a result of the Meeting, development
financial institutions established their position and
commitment by preparing the Statement of Curaçao, in
which they made a declaration regarding the necessary
intervention of the government in situations of crisis,
like the current one, to stabilize the markets; their
concern about the reversion of the advances made in the
battle against poverty; environmental problems,
particularly because of their negative effects in the
poorest sectors; the encouragement to the tourist sector
as an opportunity to generate employment, foreign
currency, and to attract investments in the countries in
the region, as well as the quick action of development
banking and the renewed importance they have attained in
the current situation.
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