CAF Opens its Annual Conference with a Call to Build Consensus in Latin America

CAF - Development Bank of Latin America - opened its annual meeting in Washington today, calling all regional leaders to build consensus towards a more sustainable and inclusive economic growth, at a time when renewed geopolitical challenges keep rising to test hemispheric institutions and the economy.

Addressing more than 1,200 leaders of the Americas, who gathered at the Willard Hotel in the U.S. capital to discuss the main challenges of the hemisphere in the dynamic global scenario, CAF's president, Enrique Garcia, urged political leaders to think in the long run when undertaking structural changes in the region.

"Latin American and developing countries demand a less volatile, higher-level growth model, which needs to be inclusive and efficient, and also sustainable in regards to the environment," Garcia said in his opening speech.

"If we want a long-term agenda, we need consensus, because structural changes do not occur in 4 or 5 years, but rather in 15 or 20, and for that to happen, the opposition and the government must agree on a common agenda, and the private sector, the governments, trade unions, and society itself, should all be part of it," he added.

The conference was organized by CAF, together with the Inter-American Dialogue and the Organization of American States (OAS). On its opening day, Garcia also highlighted the new economic landscape the region is currently facing, marked by slower growth in China and raw materials price decrease.

"Although the U.S. is going in the right direction, Europe still has problems, Japan is moving slowly, and the big surprise is that there has been an adjustment process in China, which is logical, but it has had a major impact on Latin America," he said.

For his part, the OAS Secretary General, Uruguay's former Foreign Minister, Luis Almagro, said that the region faces a new dynamic, although it is still challenged by "old problems" such as immigration, which prompts us "to find on-site solutions and to deliver solutions to those that are suffering. That is the main challenge," he added.

Opening speeches concluded with Inter-American Dialogue's President, Michael Shifter, who called for a strategy to deepen regional integration, and recalled that countries like Argentina, Venezuela and Guatemala hold elections this year that could change the political scene in the region.

After the opening speeches, a panel was moderated by Patricia Janiot, fromCNN en Español(Cnn in Spanish), entitled "Geopolitical Challenges of the Continent", with the participation of Almagro, Roberta Jacobson, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Martin Torrijos, former President of Panama, and Marco Aurelio Garcia, Foreign Affairs Adviser to Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, among others.

The discussion during this session focused on the need to fight corruption openly and transparently, as well as on public safety issues, the challenges of democracy, the need to strengthen institutions, and the role of the OAS regarding future bilateral tensions among countries in the region.

The conference will continue Thursday with panels that will address the status of regional integration and discuss the evolution of Latin America's middle class, as well as the relationship between Latin America and Asia. To close, a session will be held on the new situation in Cuba after the recent rapprochement with the U.S.

The conference was streamed at /es/actualidad/eventos/2015/09/xix-conferencia-anual-caf/, where Wednesday's panels can also be accessed.