• In an online meeting of its General Assembly, the banking community proposed the boosting of a sustainable and resilient development model as a solution to the COVID-19 crisis.

October 15, 2020.- The COVID-19 crisis has strongly impacted Latin American and Caribbean economic and social development. The region’s governments have responded by, through their development banks, mobilizing countercyclical financing and support programs for vulnerable sectors. Although desirable, these measures need to be supplemented by stronger actions. ALIDE’s General Assembly –which concluded its deliberations today– proposed that the banks’ response be directed towards boosting sustainable and resilient development with a long-term outlook.

Representatives of development banks, international organizations and government officials, numbering in the neighborhood of 500 and for the most part from Latin America and the Caribbean, met together in the ALIDE General Assembly. The participants, after hearing the experiences of national and regional banks and examining the region’s economic prospects, came to an agreement on a common vision for the banking system that would coordinate immediate measures with SDG financing and international climate agendas.

“Hearing and exchanging development bank experiences leaves us with a major challenge to meet. We must work out how to combine the short-term response to the COVID-19 crisis, focusing mainly on the SMEs, with the need to establish a long-term vision by bringing production structures into line with the SDG and the global climate agenda. We have the challenge before us to make the necessary changes in our institutions so that this commitment can be strengthened and materializes in our countries, as proposed in our General Assembly,” Carlos Linares, ALIDE President, commented.

“The role played by public development banks is more essential than ever today. The solutions we seek to the COVID-19 crisis will have to come from the financial sector. For that reason, we, as development banks, must ensure that the funding flows in a sustainable and resilient direction. We are building a global banking community that could be committed to that aim and ALIDE constitutes an important element of that community,” stated Rémy Rioux, Chairperson of the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) and CEO of the French Development Agency (AFD).

“The pandemic scenario demands a common agenda from development banks, not only to mitigate its impact, but to build the future. The time has come to redefine the role of the banks towards channeling financial resources to sustainable development and modernizing financial instruments. These are opportunities open to us that were discussed at the General Assembly meeting. As one of Brazil’s largest subnational development banks, BDMG furthers the agreements reached at this meeting,” Sergio Gusmão Suchodolski, BDMG President, claimed.

“The dramatic circumstances of the crisis clearly call for public intervention. In this connection, the efforts of development banks are absolutely essential. Their policy for taking action must make efficient use of public resources; the outlook must be inclusive, with a strategic medium- and long-term perspective, including the adoption of technology and enterprise digitalization and, to conclude, it must be sustainable. I feel certain that in that way we, as development banks, can help the countries in the best way possible in this difficult situation,” stated Juan Ketterer, Chief of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Connectivity, Markets and Finance Division.

The representatives of the banks additionally underscored the need to expedite a new, more horizontal multilateralism and international cooperation better attuned to the demands created by the current economic scenario, in which not only financial, but also natural and social resources are valued as cooperation. This vision should internalize the idea of a global community for producing common solutions.

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About the General Assembly

As is recognized, the ALIDE General Assembly is the annual summit of the Development Bank System of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is a high-level meeting where the main representatives of the sector discuss financing for development, establish cooperative relations and consensus. It is held annually with the participation of more than 300 representatives of the sector.

About ALIDE

ALIDE is the community of financial institutions that generates banking solutions for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean. Founded in 1968, its main objective is to contribute to the economic and social development of the region, through the good practices in development financing that it promotes among its associates, about 90 institutions with a presence in more than 20 Latin American countries and other regions of the world.

Contact

Hanguk Yun
Officer, Comunication Unit
Telephone: +511-203-5520 |: Ext: 226
comunicaciones@alide.org
www.alide.org