Luque (Paraguay), Mar 12 (EFE).- The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group on Thursday announced the successful completion of the $3.5 billion capitalization process of IDB Invest, its private-sector arm, and now expects a financing capacity of $500 billion over the next decade, double the amount of the past 10 years.
“With this capitalization, we estimate that over the next decade, the IDB Group will activate $500 billion in financing in Latin America over the next 10 years. That is double what we did in the past 10 years,” Group President Ilan Goldfajn said at a press conference on the second day of the institution’s annual meetings being held in Paraguay.
Goldfajn explained that IDB Invest specifically plans to increase its financing and mobilization capacity from approximately $13 billion to $22 billion over the next decade.
The Israeli-Brazilian economist stressed, however, that resources make little sense without impact. He said that the positive effects the institution foresees through 2035 include strengthening growth, creating jobs, reducing poverty, expanding markets, strengthening supply chains, mobilizing private resources, and promoting regional integration.
The capitalization plan for IDB Invest is one of the three pillars of IDBImpact+, the framework approved at the 2024 annual meetings, which also includes a new institutional strategy aimed at increasing impact and a replenishment plan for IDB Lab, the Group’s innovation arm.
“I believe we are just beginning BIDImpact+, because now is the time for implementation. The strategy has been designed, and we must move from vision to implementation,” Goldfajn said.
“To put it in sports terms, we feel like we have been training for the marathon, but the marathon is starting now. We are probably in the first five or ten kilometers of the marathon,” IDB Invest CEO James Scriven said at the same press conference.
Three priorities for the plenary sessions
Goldfajn also noted that during the group’s plenary sessions, which begin on Friday and conclude Saturday, three priorities are to be addressed, starting with a development plan led by the private sector.
In that sense, Goldfajn insisted that the group can generate “synergies that serve everyone” only if the private sector plays a prominent role, mainly because in Latin America and the Caribbean “the public sector does not have sufficient resources to close the gaps we aim to close.”
The IDB Group president has repeatedly emphasized that public institutions provide the “enabling conditions,” while businesses are the ones that can “bring scale, innovation, and jobs.”
To advance this goal, the annual meetings will promote LAC Crece, an initiative aimed at overcoming barriers to growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, from logistical and regulatory obstacles to institutional weaknesses.
Another priority during the plenary sessions will be the need to create complete value chains for the critical minerals sector, which is expected to experience enormous growth in the region in the coming years.
To help Latin America move from simply extracting minerals to processing, manufacturing, and refining them, thereby generating jobs and sustainable growth, the IDB Group will also promote its LAC Minerals initiative during the annual meetings.
Goldfajn emphasized that the third major topic during the plenaries will be the promotion of regional integration. He said, “We will help integration for those who are ready to move forward” to achieve greater commercial, productive, infrastructure, and regulatory cohesion so the region can gain scale, reduce costs, and attract more investment. EFE
