MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bank of the South initiative with Latam increased support

OAS Assistant Secretary General Ambassador Albert Ramdin

The Inter-American Economic Council held a high level Public Summit focused on Building Sustainable Societies in Latin America. The Summit's key objectives were to focus on Economic Development Opportunities for the poor impoverished communities of Latin America and the Caribbean and examined ways to encourage the private sector to focus on establishing and expand its corporate social responsibility programs in the region.

The conference was kicked off with a keynote speech by the Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States Ambassador Albert Ramdin who accentuated the need for a new "more holistic, more human and more pragmatic" approach to development in the hemisphere. Ambassador Ramdin emphasized the need to focus on young people as the future generation of our society. Dr. Jorge Castañeda, Professor at New York University and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico emphasized that the region has developed economically and that the democratic process was working in the region. He also talked about the advent of two lefts in the region: a Democratic Left and a more populist left. He talked about developmental challenges impacting the region and the need to restructure immigration regimes to facilitate poverty alleviation and promote development. The Conference also considered the proposed creation of a new multilateral called Bank of the South. Raul Herrera, Chairman of the Latin American Practice of Winston and Strawn stated, "As a firm believer in competitive markets and aware of the continued need for significant resources to finance infrastructure and social projects in Latin America, I think that if the Bank of the South is designed and structured properly it has the potential to become an important source of debt and equity financing. Indeed, there are examples of similar multilateral initiatives that exist alongside the current multilateral development bank". With increasing social demands and an estimated 60 billion US dollars annual price tag for infrastructure financing in the region, there is sufficient space for a new development bank. The Andean Development Corporation (CAF) could prove to be an exemplary model for this new development bank." On the other hand some expressed the concern that the Development Bank may be a tool of the populist left in the region to counter US influence in the other multilaterals. The Bank of the South is sponsored by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez with the support so far of Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Argentina. Brazil supports the idea of extra financing for infrastructure but has yet to make a decision.