Jurist Mauricio Claver-Carone (45, new President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) since October 1, for the next 5 years, predicts that his mandate will mainly benefit small countries, including those in Central America. and the Caribbean.

To this end, "the management team that we will constitute will be the most representative of the small countries in the history of the IDB" which currently has 48 member countries, including 26 borrowers, the latter all from Latin America and the Caribbean.

According to IDB information, since its ninth general capital increase (IDB-9), the Bank has sought to devote at least 35% of the volume of all its annual loans to small, vulnerable countries in the region. A group of countries which includes Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay.

Claver-Carone, a former advisor for the Americas and a visible face for the past two years of President Donald Trump's policy towards Latin America, said he believed the countries of Central America and the Caribbean "still face the greatest challenges due to their high exposure to major natural hazards, low economic diversification, and high reliance on tourism and remittances."

He believes that what "the people of Central America and the Caribbean simply need are opportunities in their countries, a freedom of innovation, an agile bureaucracy and in this, we can help, access to finance."

In this context, he said that, under his leadership, the financial institution will prioritize financial support to small and medium enterprises, in order to have an impact on job creation and national wealth.

HL/ HaitiLibre