Chile regains its leadership position in CAF
During their visit to Chile, members of the senior management of CAF - Development Bank of Latin America - led by its Executive President, Sergio Diaz-Granados, Christian Asinelli, Corporate Vice President of Strategic Programming, and the Southern Regional Manager, Jorge Srur, held an important meeting with the team of the Ministry of Finance, headed by Mario Marcel Cullell.
During the meeting, the Chilean government signed the Incorporation Agreement and expressed its intention to become a full member of CAF as soon as possible. The Minister recalled that Chile was one of the founders of this organisation, created in 1970, and after leaving in 1977, it rejoined in 1992 and has remained an associate member ever since.
"By becoming a full member, we will not only have a voice and a vote in the organisation's decisions, but we will also significantly increase our access to financing, both in the form of credit and technical cooperation. In the case of loans, we could probably more than triple our stock of credit from the Development Bank of Latin America, and we could have access to technical cooperation funds of the order of 1 million dollars annually, plus other funds that are administered by the CAF and originate from other donors," said Mario Marcel Cullell, Minister of Finance.
"For us this represents an important step forward in strengthening CAF's South American dimension. This will allow us to offer better support to Chile in strategic issues, especially in the process of economic reactivation, sustainable development and regional integration. For us it is a great honour to have Chile as a full member and I would like to thank Minister Marcel and his team for bringing Chile back to CAF with full force", said Diaz-Granados.
Chile is one of the founding countries of CAF and its incorporation as a full member will allow it access to new financial tools and instruments, technical assistance and knowledge generation for both the public and private sectors in favour of the population, sustainable development and regional integration. The government and the authorities of the organisation will review the roadmap for the trans-Andean country to become a full member.
This visit renews CAF's strategy of increasing the participation of shareholders such as Costa Rica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, which became full members, as well as the incorporation of new shareholders such as El Salvador. The increased geographic reach of the institution is complemented by the historical strengthening of the institution's equity, for a total amount of USD 7 billion. This capital increase, approved by CAF's Shareholders' Meeting, will allow the institution to double its portfolio by 2030 and turn the multilateral organisation into the Bank for economic reactivation and the Green Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean over the next decade.