Inter-American Development Bank to hold Annual Meeting in Busan, Republic of Korea

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will hold its Annual Meeting in Busan, Republic of Korea, March 26-29, bringing finance officials and business leaders from its 48 member countries to discuss the economic outlook and development challenges of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as investment opportunities and the exchange of best practices between the region and Asia.

Representatives of international development agencies, academics, commercial banks, entrepreneurs and companies are expected to attend the gathering, the 56th annual meeting of the IDB’s Board of Governors, which is the Bank’s top decision-making body. Most IDB governors are finance or planning ministers, or central bank presidents.

During the event the IDB will release its annual macroeconomic assessment of the region’s outlook amidst a challenging global economic environment. The Governors also will discuss how the IDB can deepen its contributions to the development of the region, especially through its private sector operations.

The meeting will feature a Knowledge Sharing Forum, where representatives of government, policymakers and academics will discuss development lessons drawn from experiences both regions have had in sustainable energy, urban development, developing workplace skills, promoting trade and investment, and utilizing information and communications technologies to boost productivity and innovation.

The day-long forum will be inaugurated by IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno and the president of the Korea Development Institute, Joon-Kyung Kim.

In addition, Busan will host the Korea-Latin America and the Caribbean Business Summit, an event that brings together top executives, policy makers, and high government officials from Korea, Latin America and the Caribbean to discuss investment opportunities and ways to boost trade. A key feature of the Business Summit are one-on-one business matchmaking sessions arranged for Korean, Latin American and Caribbean companies.

The Annual Meeting will also feature a special presentation on ConnectAmericas, a new Internet platform created by the IDB with support from Google, Visa, DHL and Alibaba. The first social network for businesses in the Americas, ConnectAmericas seeks to promote the internationalization of Latin America’s small and midsized firms by providing them an online forum where they can make connections with international clients, suppliers and logistics providers. In less than a year of operation, ConnectAmericas has registered nearly 20,000 businesspeople from 45 countries.

In addition, the IDB will host a dialogue between President Moreno and 10 to 12 young innovators from Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago plus Korea. They will highlight how innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship are key ingredients to accelerate growth and to solve local and international development challenges.

As part of the activities related to the Annual Meeting, there will be a discussion on the influence of film, television, art and public campaigns on public policy. There will be a screening of two short films which form part of the IDB-produced feature-length documentary“The Empty Classroom” (“El Aula Vacia”).Under the creative direction of Mexican film actor and director Gael García-Bernal, the movie focuses on the dropout crisis in Latin America, with 10 shorts directed by leading Latin American filmmakers, including Mariana Chenillo and Tatiana Huezo, both of whom will be in Busan.

Members of the news media may register for the event and learn about hotel availability at the Annual Meeting’s website.

Every three years, the IDB holds its annual meeting outside of the Latin America and the Caribbean region, in one of the Bank’s non-borrowing member countries. This year, the Republic of Korea, which became a shareholder in the Bank in 2005, is serving as host.

The IDB is Latin America and the Caribbean’s leading source of multilateral financing and knowledge for development. Its mission is to combat poverty and inequality and contribute to policies that help the region achieve sustainable growth.