“Mexico is an economic power in Latin America and is becoming a leader on global issues. Mexico’s success will surely have great impact on the region,” said Zoellick.
Zoellick met with President Felipe Calderón to review the new Strategic Alliance between Mexico and the World Bank.
During this meeting with the Minister of Finance Agustín Carstens, he signed an innovative loan for US$501.25 million to support Mexico’s efforts on climate change.
The President also met with students to have an open dialogue on the concerns and vision of Mexico’s youth.
May 9, 2008— World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick finished his first visit to Mexico since becoming World Bank President on July of 2007. During his two-day visit, Mr. Zoellick met with President Felipe Calderón to review the new Strategic Alliance between Mexico and the World Bank. During the meeting, the leaders discussed the world hunger crisis and Mexico’s key role as a leader in global issues including climate change and trade.
“Mexico is an economic power in Latin America and is becoming a leader on global issues. Mexico’s success will surely have great impact on the region,” said Zoellick. “The strategic alliance recently approved with Mexico includes mechanisms for addressing global issues like climate change and the challenges facing the country to sustain grown and competitiveness so as to increase opportunities for everyone.”
As part of his visit, Mr. Zoellick met with several members of President Calderón’s cabinet, including the Secretary of Finance and Chairman of the Committee for World Bank Development, Agustín Carstens, with whom he signed an innovative loan for US$501.25 million to support Mexico’s efforts on climate change.
During a joint press conference at the National Palace, Secretary Carstens and Mr. Zoellick shared several of the agenda topics addressed with accredited members of local and international media. These topics included the hunger crisis and its impact on Mexico, biofuels, free trade agreement, subsidies, taxes, and rural financing. Secretary Carstens expressed his interest “in that we will soon be able to materialize something to further develop our rural financing system. Financiera Rural is successful, but in any case it is important for it to expand the range of products offered to our farmers. In a conversation yesterday with Enrique de la Madrid, National Director of Financiera Rural, President Zoellick identified some opportunities for collaboration, particularly to offer farmers timely and better structured credits, thereby promoting agricultural production further.”
In addition to his meeting with the Secretary of Finance, Mr. Zoellick met with the Secretary of Public Education, Josefina Vázquez Mota; the Secretary of Social Development, Ernesto Cordero; and the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources, Juan Rafael Elvira.
In order to better understand the economic and social challenges facing Mexico, Mr. Zoellick also met with legislators, private sector representatives, academics, and students from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), with whom he had an open dialogue to hear the concerns and vision of Mexico’s youth. At this meeting, students expressed their concerns about the quality of education, corruption levels, the prevailing political scenario, and the hunger crisis, as well as show the will to create socially responsible leaders. The private sector representatives shared how the country’s current investment climate is impacted by the United States economic slowdown and also addressed issues such as infrastructure, institutional strengthening, and competitiveness.
In order to listen and learn about the impact of World Bank-supported programs, Mr. Zoellick visited the Oportunidades Program in Tepoztlán, Morelos. Oportunidades is the Mexican Government’s main poverty reduction program and it is based on conditional cash transfers to help both rural and urban poor gain better access to education and health, as well as improving their children’s education. At a local school, Mr. Zoellick spoke with a group of program beneficiaries, who told him about the program’s impact on their lives and their community. The success of Oportunidades is based on accountability and it has shown that it is indeed possible to break the cycle of poverty by empowering poor people so they can take their futures into their own hands.
RSS