MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IDB 2022 Annual Assembly to be held in Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este

Minister Arbeleche is to chair the IDB's Board of Directors

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will hold its 2022 annual meeting of governors between March 17 and 20, 2022 at the most exclusive Uruguayan beach resort of Punta del Este, it was announced this week in Washington DC.

The decision was reached after Uruguay's Economy and Finance Minister Azucena Arbeleche held talks while in the United States capital with IDB President Mauricio Claver-Carone.

The meeting “will focus on the economic recovery after the pandemic, climate change and private sector investment in the region,” Uruguay's Ministry of Economy and Finance said in a statement. “Economic and financial leaders from the 48 IDB member countries are expected to discuss the economic recovery and investment opportunities in Latin America,” the document went on.

Arbeleche is expected to take over the presidency of the Board of Governors, the highest authority of the IDB and the Inter-American Corporation of Investors until March 2023.

The Uruguayan official and the banking leader “talked about the agenda for March, and the analytical work that the institution is carrying out within the framework of the Barranquilla Resolution of the 2021 Assembly,” the communiqué elaborated.

The IDB is the main source of financing for development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Arbeleche was in Washington to attend annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) in addition to holding “a series of meetings with authorities of multilateral organizations, governments of other countries, financial institutions and representatives of the private sector,” the Uruguayan ministry also pointed out.

Although the IDB emerged as a multilateral body that brought together the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean, today Canada, the United States, and 20 extra-regional countries - from Europe and Asia, such as South Korea, China, and Japan - are also a part.

while in Washington, Arbeleche spoke at the conference of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action. During her speech, she favoured “the incorporation of environmental criteria in the management of the economy of developing countries and their sovereign financing strategies.“

”We believe that both developed and developing economies should intensify their efforts and take proactive measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen their resilience to climate change,” the minister went on.

Arbeleche also addressed Uruguay's economic and financial policy going through the COVID-19 pandemic and the country's vaccination policy.