CAF posits four challenges for Latin America at its 22^nd Annual Conference

The debate on the progress and challenges of global economic and political relations with Latin America set the tone for the 22^nd Annual CAF Conference, which currently takes place in Washington, D.C. The challenges to improve people’s well-being and promote sustainable growth, strengthen democracy and human rights were addressed during the opening session.

“We want to mention here four fundamental challenges for Latin America’s development: We must have fiscal consolidation in the region to make public debt sustainable over time; we need to leverage our relationship with China to promote long-term growth in Latin America. There is also institutional challenges of improving transparency to avoid corruption, and freedom of the press plays a central role in that regard. And finally, low productivity in the region implies a need to reach fundamental political consensus to promote growth, investment and productivity,” said Luis Carranza, executive president of CAF during his keynote speech, together with Luis Almagro, Secretary-General of the OAS; and Michael Shifter, President of Inter-American dialogue.

The first session of the 22^nd Annual CAF Conference revolved around the 21^st-century challenges for freedom of the press, with valuable input by Marty Baron, editor at The Washington Post; Carlos Dada, founding director of El Faro (El Salvador); Roberto Pombo Holguín, chief editor of El Tiempo (Colombia); and Carlos Reymundo Roberts, editor of La Nación (Argentina). The discussion was moderated by Catalina Botero, Dean of the Faculty of Law of Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia).

The relation between China and Latin America under a new trade and investment outlook, influenced by US policies, was discussed by Rogers Valencia, Peru’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism; Dulcidio De La Guardia, former Minister of Finance of Panama; Tatiana Rosito, Senior Member of the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI); Kevin Gallagher, director of the University of Boston Global Economic Governance Initiative; Álvaro Mendez, co-director of the London School of Economics Global South Unit; and Isabel Hilton, editor of China Dialogue.

During the morning session, representatives of governments, international organizations and civil society, entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers, analysts and journalists, will discuss what to do in the region to achieve sustained growth; how to narrow the productivity gap; how to think beyond short-term policy to reach consensus towards sustainable development; and the elections and political developments in Latin America, with a focus on Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela.

You can follow the 22^nd Annual CAF Conference live here and make comments with the hashtag #DiálogoCAF2018