Qualitative progress in strategic partnership with Asian Development Bank

(Manila, May 5, 2012). Enrique García , president & CEO of CAF -development bank of Latin America – participated as special guest in the 45th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) held in Manila, Philippines, May 2 through 5 which gathered leading authorities from the ministries of Economy and Finance of its 67 member countries, together with over 4,000 business leaders, representatives of civil society and experts on development issues.

During the Assembly, García met with ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda and senior officials of the bank with which CAF has forged a strategic partnership in an effort to deepen relations between Latin America and Asia, especially on issues of vital importance such as environment, development and social inclusion, finance, innovation and productive transformation. He also held meetings with representatives of the governments of the Asian region, including Philippines, Japan, China, India and Singapore.

The synergy between the two institutions reflects CAF’s catalytic role and its interest in taking a more active and integrated role in Asia through promotion of trade and investment, and stimulating South-South cooperation and exchange of knowledge and experiences in sustainable development and regional integration. "We are an essentially Latin American development bank and, in that respect, we accept our responsibility to play a significant role in relations between Latin America and other emerging regions on the world stage. We cannot be absent from the ongoing transition of the political, economic and financial balance from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Our region has to be an actor rather than an observer," García said.

During the meeting, the CAF president was one of the speakers in the seminar on "Global financial inclusion by 2020, Getting there from here" along with Nestor Espenill, deputy governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines; YH Malegam, member of the Board of the Central Bank of India; Patricia Loui, member of the Board of the Export-Import Bank of the United States; Jay Collins, managing director and vice chairman of Citigroup Global Banking, among others.

The seminar discussed and exchanged ideas on the growing importance of financial inclusion in the developing world. The CAF CEO emphasized the need for joint action to respond to a situation where three billion poor people around the world and millions of small and medium enterprises have no access to financial services. He highlighted the need to design and offer financial tools to the most excluded sectors of society, with the firm intention of breaking the cycle of poverty and the means to achieve these goals by 2020.

During the seminar, García presented, from a regional perspective, CAF’s work in the area - especially microfinance - and the main findings of its RED report " Financial services for development: Promoting access in Latin America ." He said access to financial services was a critical factor for stimulating the economic development and wellbeing of society. He revealed that the CAF studies confirmed that, despite the important progress made by Latin America, the region still has low levels of financial services, especially among the poorest sectors of the population. He said there was a need to address this problem in a more integrated way with close cooperation between governments, central banks, supervisory agencies, financial institutions - both traditional and specialized - and segments of the private sector which group emerging entrepreneurs.

Turning to CAF’s actions, he mentioned extensive progress in developing specialized microfinance institutions in Latin America which offer market solutions, as well as promoting products that go beyond credit, especially support for guarantee funds, equity interest in funds that specialize in financing micro and small enterprises, and a range of initiatives aimed at capacity building and developing instruments to encourage savings, risk mitigation and particularly access to medium- and long-term funds.