• • Highlights of the event included the keynote address by the President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Hyginus ‘Gene’ Leon, and the opening words of Curaçao’s Prime Minister,  Gilmar Pisas. 

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  May 18, 2022- The Fifty-second General Assembly of ALIDE,  organized by the Latin American Association of Development Financing Institutions (ALIDE)  and the  Curaçao Development Corporation (Korpodeko), was inaugurated in Willemstad as a hybrid event. This allowed for the in-person and virtual participation of over 200 representatives of Latin American and Caribbean development banks and interested parties.

  ALIDE President, Carlos Linares, who chaired the opening session of the Congress, explained the difficulties facing the region and dwelled on the importance of boosting support and finance for development during crises like the pandemic.

  He was followed by Curaçao’s Prime Minister, Gilmar Pisas, and the country’s Minister for Economic Development, Ruisandro Cijntje, who underscored the importance to the Caribbean of establishing closer relations with Latin America and joining efforts so that the two regions could learn from each other and be strengthened.

  «This is a unique opportunity for the Caribbean to reinforce its union with its Latin American associates and draw on our common knowledge so that we can transcend our limitations,» Prime Minister Pisas asserted.

  Minister Cijntje, for his part, explained the challenges that the pandemic had created for Curaçao. He went on to point out that his country needs to “refashion the fabric of its finances” in order to be able to attain its economic and social objectives to benefit the general population and the economic sectors that show a potential for growth.

• Experiences and knowledges Prior to the first plenary session “Opportunities for Latin America and the  Caribbean of an emerging technology-based economy,” the President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB),   Hyginus ‘Gene’ Leon, delivered a keynote address centering on an explanation of the three most important challenges confronting the Caribbean region, to wit:  the role of finance in the implementation of the region’s agenda; the various different types of development finance; and the support of innovative methods and tools for development finance.

  In-person presentations were made during the first plenary session by Claudia Arce, Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the German KfW Development Bank (KfW),  Ivan Cornejo, NAFIN Director of International Financial Organizations, and Lukas Wellen, Director of the United Kingdom’s Fern Software.

  Those speakers discussed emerging technologies and how their strategic management guarantees compliance with dynamic goals that will help the region to secure better opportunities if the work is done jointly with the public and private sectors.

  Two panels followed in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)    before the first day of the Assembly came to an end.  The first addressed the importance of heat maps in climate risk management to help financial institutions identify opportunities for investment in resilient activities. And the second panel centered its attention on opportunities and challenges for the financial inclusion of enterprises headed by women in the region.

  It should be added here that in preparation for the Assembly, the Caribbean Seminar “Investment opportunities for the construction of a resilient economy in the Caribbean and  cooperation with the Latin American development banking system” was held on May 17.  It included panels that dealt with the importance of sustainable infrastructure investment for the development and application of digital tools to boost solutions in the Caribbean.

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

Andrea Villafranca
Communications Unit of ALIDE
Phone: +511-203-5520 |: Ext: 227
comunicaciones@alide.org, comunicaciones2@alide.org
www.alide.org