{"id":212,"date":"2011-02-02T23:25:46","date_gmt":"2011-02-02T22:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colindgordon.net\/?p=212"},"modified":"2012-08-25T14:47:14","modified_gmt":"2012-08-25T13:47:14","slug":"latin-america-must-adapt-to-a-changing-world-caf-president-calls-for-further-regional-integration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/2011\/02\/latin-america-must-adapt-to-a-changing-world-caf-president-calls-for-further-regional-integration\/","title":{"rendered":"“Latin America Must Adapt To A Changing World”: CAF President Calls For Further Regional Integration:"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow do we get our countries to agree on a long-term agenda? How do we rebuild the political consensus and the way our society discusses political issues?\u201d These were just two of the key questions posed by Enrique Garcia , the Bolivian Executive Chairman of the Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF) when he addressed a packed meeting at Canning House (\u201cThe home of the Hispanic & Luso Brazilian Council\u201d in London\u2019s Belgrave Square) on Monday 24th<\/sup> January. None his audience disputed his assertion that, despite Latin America being very much \u201cback on the map,\u201d its constituent nations \u201cneed to find a way to resolve some of their differences in order to secure their place in the world\u201d. If they fail to do so \u201cThey won\u2019t be able to rival the big global players\u201d. Among those attending were the ambassadors of Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela, Andorra and\u00a0 El Salvador, diplomatic staff from the Uruguayan, Peruvian, Chilean and Panamanian legations, the Director of the British-Colombian Chamber of Commerce plus\u00a0 representatives from\u00a0 organizations such as Citibank, BAE Systems (the British defence, security & aerospace company) and BP. They were there to hear Sr. Garcia\u2019s views on the prospective \u201c Growth and Trade Opportunities\u201d in the area as well as the potential impact of \u201cRising International Currencies\u201d. It is not necessary, he told them, to be \u201cideological\u201d (whether left or right) to have good micro-economic policies \u2013 but that a strong private sector and access to credit is essential. The current 4%-5% rate of growth and 21% investment in infrastructure is simply \u201dnot enough\u201d: It should be at least 6% and 27%.\u00a0 Even then, this would be far behind what is being achieved in Asia, where investment has reached 40% and beyond.<\/p>\n

Throughout his talk, Sr. Garcia stressed that competence, efficiency and stability are vital elements in ensuring\u00a0 sustainable development. He was cautiously optimistic about the region\u2019s future. but was concerned that \u201cAlthough poverty is diminishing, Latin America still has the worst distribution of income in the world. More funds need to be allocated to education, especially as preparation for the constant changes in technology\u201d He queried whether possessing a wealth of primary commodities should be considered \u201c a blessing or a curse\u201d, advocated wider diversification, such as dealing more with Europe once the \u201cold continent\u201d had put its house in order, described Chile as economically the most successful country in Latin America and contended that the \u201crealities facing countries who are not particularly friendly to the private sector\u201d would oblige them to \u201cmove in a pragmatic way to a central position\u201d. This would also require \u201cThe re-thinking of the role of the state in the private sector (a recurring theme throughout the session): \u201cHow do you manage fiscal resources?\u201d The traditional integration structures and free-trade arrangements in the area are \u201cnot working well\u201d at the moment. This was a reference to The Andean Community (until 1996 called the \u201cAndean Pact\u201d), consisting of Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru & Colombia ; Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay & Uruguay) and Caricom (15 Caribbean countries and dependencies).<\/p>\n

Sr. Garcia careful avoided being drawn into discussing the polemical aspects of ALBA (\u201cThe Bolivarian Alliance For the People Of Our America\u201d; member countries: Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela), characterising it mainly as \u201cA concept\u201d which provides left-leaning politicians with a quick answer to the problems they have to resolve. President Evo Morales, \u201dHas not changed policies pursued in Bolivia 25 years ago\u201d. An example of this was when he \u201ctried to increase the price of gas by 75%\u201d \u2013 a measure he had to hastily abandon when confronted by angry nationwide protests. Although there are clearly \u201c conceptual differences\u201d within the Andean community, \u201dthere are not inflationary problems as before\u201d. Could these resurge? Latin American nations \u201chave to be careful in managing what for many is a boom period\u201d so as to avoid the up to 20% inflation levels of the past and the appreciation of their currencies. The present fiscal policy in the USA \u201c Will last a few more months \u2013 until the end of the year\u201d. Interest rates will then have to go up, \u201dwhich will help Latin America\u201d. The region, however, should not look to the international markets for all the answers: It must retain the ability to \u201cadjust as and when necessary\u201d to the constant fluctuations in global economic circumstances.<\/p>\n

CAF has recently announced several ambitious new projects in Latin America: It will lend US$48 million to Ecuador as partial financing of the Valle de los Chillos road in the Pinincha province; US$126million to Bolivia for a five-year water & irrigation programme; US$6 billion will be allocated to Colombia by the end of 2014 for public and private sector ventures. Included in its many other commitments is a US$50 million contribution to a water & sanitation improvement enterprise ( total cost: US$72.3 million) to be carried out by Hidroven in six Venezuelan states. CAF also sponsors a wide range of social, cultural and sporting activities such as the Caracas Marathon 2011 (February 20th<\/sup>). The Corporacion acknowledges on its website that it is frequently asked about the origin of its resources. These, they say, are derived from the global capital markets. It also \u201creceives deposits from central & commercial banks in the region, obtains loans & credit lines from international commercial banks & official institutions\u201d. Export credit agencies furnish an additional supply of funding. The \u201cResponding To Climate Change\u201d organization (RTCC) profiles CAF as \u201c a multilateral financial institution, based in Caracas, whose mission is to support the sustainability and competitiveness of its shareholder countries (twelve from Latin America plus Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Spain and 18 private banks in the area). Moreover, that\u00a0 CAF\u2019s \u201cstrategic priorities\u201d are its work in the environmental & social fields of action and the strengthening of democratic institutions and governance.\u201d According to \u201cLa Moncloa\u201d (Spanish Government) website, CAF has significantly increased the scope of its operations in the past few years and consequently become the principal source of infrastructure funding in Latin America. \u2013\u00a0 surpassing the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the World Bank, both of which are based in Washington.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHow do we get our countries to agree on a long-term agenda? How do we rebuild the political consensus and the way our society discusses political issues?\u201d These were just two of the key questions posed by Enrique Garcia , the Bolivian Executive Chairman of the Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF) when he addressed a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}