CAF: Strategic Partner of Chile’s Decentralization
September 30, 2022
The Executive President of CAF—development bank of Latin America—, Sergio Díaz-Granados, held a meeting with the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric Font, to discuss the importance of Chile’s re-accession to the institution as a full member, and to express CAF’s commitment to supporting the process of internal decentralization and integration with Latin America Chile has undertaken
Díaz-Granados was joined by the advisor to the Executive President, Lina Mondragón, and the Southern Regional Manager, Jorge Srur, and highlighted the importance of promoting regional integration around main pillars such as infrastructure and trade. He also ratified CAF’s support for the organization of the Santiago 2023 Pan American and Parapan American Games.
During his visit, the head of CAF also held meetings with the Minister of Economy, Mario Marcel, regional governors, and members of the Senate.
During the meeting with the minister of economy, Díaz-Granados jointly defined the priorities for the 2023–2026 project portfolio, and discussed the upcoming opening of CAF’s Representative Office in Chile.
The office will bolster the development bank’s operations in Chile, as well as promote the new institutional strategy and align it with the national development plan established by the Boric administration. In this context, different cooperation and financing opportunities were evaluated, including housing and urban infrastructure projects with added value, initiatives for the inclusion of people with disabilities, support for education and digital transformation of the education sector.
They also analyzed the possibility of collaborating for the design of a green finance agenda that advancing the conservation of natural capital and the mobilization of private funds for infrastructure financing. Lastly, they discussed how the bank can support the decentralization process of the 16 existing regional governments.
Furthermore, during the meeting with the Chilean Governors Association, the CAF delegation highlighted the institution’s relevance and experience to empower and strengthen subnational governments. The meeting was attended by the governors of Los Lagos and Association president Patricio Vallespín, Ricardo Díaz from Antofagasta, Claudio Orrego from the Metropolitan Region, Jorge Flies from Magallanes, Pablo Silva from O'Higgins; and Rodrigo Díaz from Bio Bio.
The parties established the importance of sharing experiences with other countries in the region to devise a joint work agenda.
In addition, and within the framework of the agreement signed between CAF and the Chilean Senate, Executive President Díaz-Granados, together with his delegation, held a meeting with members of the Foreign Relations and Finance committees to evaluate potential collaboration.
During the meeting, they discussed CAF’s new strategy to become the Green and Blue Bank, while stressing the economic and social recovery of the region, the generation of knowledge, with emphasis on climate change and biodiversity, social inclusion and gender, among other core issues.
To culminate his visit, CAF’s Executive President held, together with the Corporate Vice President of the private sector, Jorge Arbache, a meeting with the Confederation of Production and Commerce (CPC), to evaluate possibilities regarding the mobilization of private sector funds for SMEs, as well as other climate action and biodiversity issues.
The Confederation of Production and Commerce is the Chilean business association that brings together the main productive sectors of the nation, including commerce, agriculture, mining, industry, construction and banking.