The new president of the Western Hemisphere’s top development bank and the top U.S. trade policy official see job creation and growth of the middle class in Latin America and the Caribbean as the keys for regional economic development, and a boon for U.S. policy in the region.
Mauricio Claver-Carone, who became the Inter-American Development Bank’s president in October, told The Hill that he sees job creation as the IDB’s top goal.
“Across the board, the challenge is job creation. Good, quality jobs. I mean, that’s the bottom line,” said Claver-Carone.
That goal stands in contrast to the IDB’s regional reputation as an aloof financier of grandiose projects with macroeconomic impact and little effect on the lives of the region’s population.
But Claver-Carone, the first IDB president from the U.S., said he sees the bank’s future as prioritizing small and medium-sized businesses, with a focus on woman-owned firms, over the mega-projects most Latin Americans associate with the bank.
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