Paraguay is hosting the 56th General Assembly of the Latin American Association of Development Financing Institutions (ALIDE), which brings together financial authorities and multilateral organizations from Latin America and the Caribbean to discuss the strategic role of development banking amid a new global economic landscape marked by uncertainty and fragmentation.
At the opening of the event, ALIDE President Juan Cuattromo highlighted that innovation, investment, and inclusion are pillars for driving development banking toward inclusive and transformative growth. “We are living through a moment of profound redefinition of the international economic order. The global economy is slowing down, with high uncertainty, trade and financial tensions, persistent inflation, and interest rates that continue to constrain productive investment,” he said.
Cuattromo added that fragmentation and geopolitical conflicts are reshaping supply chains and putting pressure on prices of energy, food, and other strategic raw materials. “What was once cyclical volatility is now a structural condition,” he said. He also pointed out that Latin America and the Caribbean face this context with insufficient growth, low investment, productivity gaps, and persistent inequalities, making it essential to strengthen the strategic role of development banking.
“Productive transformation, economic modernization, and social inclusion require vision, institutional frameworks, and financing. Development banking fulfills this function as a strategic complement where the market does not reach,” Cuattromo added. He mentioned that one of the axes of the assembly is innovation, not only through technological adoption but also through new financial instruments to measure economic, social, and environmental impact.
The president of the National Development Bank (BNF) and chair of the 56th ALIDE Assembly, Manuel Ochipintti, highlighted that the meeting is one of the most relevant forums in the region for discussing innovation, investment, and inclusion as drivers of transformative growth. “We are not actors of last resort; we are the first called to mobilize resources to where the market would arrive late or would not arrive at all,” he said. Ochipintti stated that the BNF faces the challenge of structuring financial instruments that link investments to local suppliers and generate quality jobs. “The new frontier of public development banking is not just lending, but building value chains that last for generations,” he declared.
Paraguay’s Minister of Economy and Finance, Óscar Lovera, emphasized the value of exchanging experiences within ALIDE to accelerate the adaptation and modernization of development finance institutions. In a regional context marked by structural challenges and different macroeconomic realities, Lovera said that economic growth must translate into employment, productivity, inclusion, and social mobility. “Development banking has a strategic and irreplaceable role, because it not only mobilizes resources but also articulates solutions, drives high-impact projects, and accompanies processes of productive transformation,” he concluded.