Thursday, April 06, 2006

[Latin America] Delegates Urge Nations to Address Poverty

from The Herald News Daily

By ALAN CLENDENNING,

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil - Latin American governments and lenders must do more to ease the deep divide between rich and poor because few benefits of an expanding economy are trickling down to the poor, delegates at key economic forum said Wednesday.

He promised a stronger push by the region‘s largest development bank to deal with the problem as the IDB ended its annual meeting in this southeastern Brazilian city.

Sebastian Paust of Germany‘s economic cooperation and development ministry warned that "Latin America has to quickly find the magic key" to growth that benefits the poor.

While 2005 saw high economic growth and record profits for big companies doing business in the region, about 213 million Latin Americans and Caribbean citizens still live on less than $1 a day, said Gert Meinecke, deputy head for Asia and Latin America with Denmark‘s Foreign Ministry.

Moreno said he wants to issue more loans to the private sector, and also plans to continue the IDB‘s focus on big infrastructure projects, despite criticism by Indian rights groups and environmental advocates that they funnel profits to big business while doing little for the poor and causing ecological damage.

Brazil and Mexico said rich member nations should foot the bill while the United States backed a plan that would not impose added demands on richer countries.

The bank is owned by its member countries, mainly from the Western Hemisphere, but also including 15 European nations, plus Japan, Israel and South Korea .

On Monday, demonstrators battled with police as the IDB meeting began. One police officer and three protesters were seriously injured after the demonstrators went on a vandalism rampage at utility funded by the bank and were repelled by authorities using tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades.

Moreno served as Colombia‘s ambassador to the United States since 1998 before being tapped to replace longtime bank president Enrique Iglesias, who held the job for 17 years.

Moreno‘s election to a five-year term as head of the Washington-based bank was seen as a victory for the United States, which backed his candidacy.

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