Daniel Noboa: "Latin America must be the continent of opportunities"

With a strong call to stop being "the continent of lost opportunities," CAF  - Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean-  today inaugurated the International Economic Forum Latin America and the Caribbean 2026.

The opening session was attended by regional leaders who highlighted the urgency of real integration to face global dilemmas and internal challenges such as organized crime and inequality.

As part of the presidents summoned to the meeting, Daniel Noboa, President of Ecuador, focused his speech on the intrinsic relationship between economic stability, citizen security and social welfare. Noboa made a call to armor nations against drug trafficking and not to measure the success of governments solely by GDP.

He also stressed that during his administration, Ecuador has managed to reduce poverty to 21.4%, the lowest level in its recent history. "Ordering finances is not an end. The end is to give education to our young people, hope to families and dignity to the people".

The President thanked the Government of Panama and CAF for this space for regional dialogue, and stressed that economic stability should be measured by the reduction of poverty and how it improves people's lives, not only by macroeconomic figures.

The inaugural session of the Forum was led by Sergio Díaz-Granados, CAF's Executive President, together with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil; Rodrigo Paz, President of Bolivia; Daniel Noboa, President of Ecuador; Bernardo Arévalo, President of Guatemala; Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia; Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica; and the President-elect of Chile, José Antonio Kast.

During his speech, Sergio Díaz-Granados, CAF's executive president, underscored the historic nature of the meeting and the need to strengthen regional integration in the face of global challenges. "This Forum was created to think about how we can give our nations the necessary coordination capabilities and how we can strengthen our region, integrating among ourselves and with the rest of the world. In the midst of fragmentation, we need broad, bold and high-impact spaces for reflection to align positions, add geopolitical protagonism, and provide the region with its own voice to contribute concrete solutions and courses of action".

Díaz-Granados also highlighted CAF's role in supporting countries in solving regional problems and its expansion plans for the next 5 years: "We have the foundations to achieve exponential growth of our portfolio: we aspire to expand the bank by at least 70% by 2031, which means close to USD 100 billion in new approvals, and at least 20% of them for the private sector".