Poverty and the environment, issues discussed at the IDB meeting

Annual General Meeting 2023 Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IDB Invest), today in Panama City addressed vital social and economic issues for Latin America, such as poverty, the environment, business, climate resilience and reducing the carbon footprint.

At the opening of the meeting IDB President Ilan Goldfajn, stated that the IDB and IDB Invest last met in Panama 10 years ago. The expansion of the Panama Canal has already been completed and “we are proud to have supported this important project that has doubled the canal’s capacity, ensuring many years of use of this vital route for the world.”

Goldfein emphasized that it is The Russian invasion affected the market, food production and supply, causing inflation at levels not seen by the world in decades. Therefore, in this meeting we will also see what we can do in the organization to capitalize on food production with equity in rural regions.

From the energy aspect, president of the IDB He pointed out that the region is rich in biological diversity that should enable them to take advantage of what nature has given them, they should focus on making these elements work for them.

He emphasized that integration is key for the region. “We will all benefit from a deeper integration, which will also enable us to export products more easily. We will do this by looking at the experiences of other regions of the world that have benefited from this integration”.

For his part, he Minister of Economy and Finance (MEF), Héctor Alexanderhe said “it fills us with great pride to host one of the most important assemblies in the world, the IDB Governors’ Meeting, it makes us proud.”

Regarding debt issues, disbursements, loans and technical assistance s IDB, Alexander He emphasized that there are payments from IDB projects and programs, which could be around 900 million dollars, in the coming years, and these projects are structured with a vision of social impact.

He Minister of UPCG He expressed that it is predicted that in 2023, slightly more than 40 percent of government investments will be financed with current savings, while before 100 percent of investments were paid for with debt.

“It is a strategy over time, that the weight of the debt decreases, and that savings increase so that at some point in the future, I calculate, they could finance 75 percent of the investments Central government with savings and 25% with debt,” concluded Alexander.