Chile's Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, and the president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Ilan Goldfajn, kicked off the activities of the IDB and IDB Invest 2025 Governors' Meetings , which will take place from Wednesday through Sunday at the Estación Mapocho Cultural Center.
The authorities participated in a breakfast in which they paid tribute to Felipe Herrera, former Finance Minister of Chile and the first president of the IDB, and highlighted the importance of this event attended by delegations from the 48 member countries from the Americas, Europe and Asia, which Chile is hosting for the second time in 24 years.
Chile hosts a key event for the region
Marcel valued the importance of this meeting and emphasized that "this Assembly brings together many people from the economic sphere; there are investment banks, analysts, academics, civil society organizations that participate in the different activities of the Assembly or around the Assembly. In total, we estimate that between 3,000 and 4,000 people will be coming to Chile during these days to participate in this activity".
For his part, the IDB president detailed the three main areas of work on which this week's meetings will focus: "First, to talk about the areas of common interests shared by the countries of the region. Second, we will be on the implementation of the IDB's own reforms. We are working on our new institutional strategy with axes going forward, where we work IDB Invest, which is our private arm, IDBLab in our arm that stimulates startups, in a strategy of several reforms that we have. And finally, we are going to discuss relevant topics for the development of the region: how we use artificial intelligence, how we work with technology, how to address inequality and poverty in Latin America, among others".
Investment and business opportunities
The activities begin on Wednesday with a series of seminars and networking events, where participants will be able to hold bilateral meetings with the delegations, followed by the opening ceremony on Friday. Saturday and Sunday, meanwhile, the Governors' Meetings will be held. Marcel indicated that "this is an assembly that attracts investors. It is an opportunity to show the country, to show the investment and development opportunities we have".
Goldfajn said that in Chile "we have programs, for example, Chile's Global Export Services. There is a program in which the IDB is working to strengthen regional governments in the management of urban services infrastructure on a metropolitan scale. We are going to sign a program to give sustainability to water and electricity services in Easter Island. And obviously we are going to advance in the reforms that drive transition, growth and resilience.
Finally, Minister Marcel pointed out that "the IDB has been characterized for being a bank that responds very much to the needs of the countries. It does not seek to impose priorities set elsewhere and that is something we value very much as an institution throughout its history and helps us to stay a little further away from discussions that are valid in other parts of the world".
Read the original note on the Ministry of Finance web site
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