The IDB is getting ready to elect its new president this Sunday from among five candidates

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) elects this Sunday, November 20, a new president, among candidates from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Trinidad and Tobago, to take the reins of the institution within a gloomy world context.

The board of governors, the bank’s highest authority and made up of the finance ministers and other economic authorities, meets at 8:00 a.m. Washington time, behind closed doors in a hybrid session that requires a quorum.

There are five candidates for the coveted position, all with international experience.

They are the Brazilian Ilan Goldfajn, head of the department for Latin America of the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the Mexican Gerardo Esquivel, deputy governor of the Bank of Mexico (Banxico); the Chilean Nicholas Eyzaguirre, former Minister of Finance and Education; Argentina Cecilia Todesca Bocco, Secretary of International Economic Relations of the Chancellery; and the trinidadian Gerard Johnsonformer official of the BID.

Argentine and Mexican diplomatic sources told AFP this week that “a consensus will be sought” to preside over the main source of financing for the development of the region.

To be elected, the candidate must have the support of at least 15 of the 28 American States (26 from Latin America and the Caribbean along with Canada and the United States) and an absolute majority of the votes of the 48 member countries.

The voting power of each country varies depending on the number of shares.

The three main shareholders of the bank are USA, Argentina y Brazilwho jointly own almost 53%, followed by Mexico with 7.2%.

Washington has 30%, which makes the government of Joe Biden in one of the master keys of the election, such as the dismissal of the last president of the bank, the American Mauricio Claver-Carone, for breaking the rules by favoring an employee with whom he had a sentimental relationship.

His tenure was involved in controversy and tension with some governors and employees, a rarefied climate that the candidates to replace him want to solve “with dialogue”, a word that they have repeated like a mantra in recent days.

“Effectiveness”, “transparency” and “leadership” are some others that stood out in their speeches.

The five also agree on the importance of focusing resources on combating poverty, inequality and the consequences of climate change, but taking into account that the region is heterogeneous and the needs of middle-income countries differ greatly from those of others with less access to international financial markets.

“Leadership”

The institution created in 1959 must also -they repeated in unison- optimize the resources they already have before increasing capital and recovering “leadership”, because difficult times are coming and it is not known how long they will last, with galloping inflation driven by war in Ukraine, rising interest rates and a global economic slowdown that threatens to undermine the post-pandemic recovery.

The differences in the proposals are almost nuanced.

Goldfajnthe Brazilian, wants to make it the “most important multilateral institution in the region” and considers it essential that the president be “independent, not partisan.”

He was appointed by the far-right outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro and it is not known what the elected leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva thinks, although he says he supports him.

The Chilean eyzaguirreagrees that the bank must wake up because it is “somewhat asleep”, “it is not making full use of its capacities”.

The Argentine Cecilia Todesca Bocco, the only woman and whose country never presided over the BIDproposes using it as a lever to turn the region into a “link of development” and a generator of wealth.

The Mexican Esquivel He advocates “a very comprehensive vision of development” in which the benefits are distributed “in a more equitable manner” because “it is an institution that goes far beyond financing and promoting economic growth.”

Al trinitense Johnson It seems important to him that it “refocus” because the crisis affects the most vulnerable.

Despite the headwinds, the next president will find himself in a region with “tremendous opportunities in the areas of digitization, inclusive growth, sustainability and many more,” Jason Marczak, senior director of the Atlantic’s Adrienne Arsht Center for Latin America, said Friday. Council, in an act organized by this think tank.

kg