MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Inter-American Development Bank meets in Montevideo; over 3.000 attendants

Economist Barry Eichengreen, one of the main speakers at the IDB annual meeting

Leading figures from the public, private, and academic sectors will participate in the annual meeting of the Inter American Development Bank, (IDB), In Uruguay, March 15-19, to examine issues that include the European crisis, youth employment, citizen security, culture and sports for youth development, climate change, and cooperation between Asia and Latin America.

The event will be attended by several ministers and presidents of central banks of the IDB’s 48 member countries. They include Miriam Belchior, Brazil’s minister of planning, Hernán Lorenzino, Argentine finance minister, and José Antonio Meade Kuribreña, Mexico’s minister of finance.

Also attending will be Liu Shiyu, vice governor of the Central Bank of People’s Republic of China; Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank; María Emma Mejía, secretary general of UNASUR; and Hasan Tuluy, the World Bank’s new vice president for Latin America.

The meeting is expected to draw more than 3.000 representatives of the private sector, development agencies, and multilateral institutions. This year’s event is the 53rd Annual Meeting of the IDB’s Board of Governors, the body that makes key decisions on future Bank operations.

Topics of seminars being held at the meeting include challenges posed by the European economic crisis, the role of public-private partnerships in closing enormous gaps in regional infrastructure, and innovative projects to create jobs for young people.

Seminar participants include Andreas Schleicher, director of the OECD’s PISA program; internationally known Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio; Barry Eichengreen, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley; José De Gregorio, former president of the Central Bank of Chile; and Georgina Kessel, director of Banobras. The sessions will be moderated by prominent journalists from media organizations that include The Economist and CNN en Español.

The meeting will also see the launch of a new IDB Internet platform that presents results of IDB-financed development projects in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

One day before the meeting’s inauguration, the Bank will host a special event to highlight the importance of strategic investments in youth as a key for the region’s development and the contributions thousands of young people are making every day in their communities. The day-long event will focus on youth culture, sport, and innovation. Panelists will include Julio Bocca, director of the Ballet Nacional of Uruguay; Oscar W. Tabárez, technical director of Uruguayan soccer team; and Guatemalan digital animator Carlos Arguello.