NEWS

Latin American Association of Development Financing Institutions

RECOGNITION TO GOOD PRACTICES IN DEVELOPMENT FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

ALIDE Awards in Recognition to Good practives in Development Financial Instituions were granted during ALIDE 39th Meeting of the General Assembly that took place in Curaçao, Netherland Antilles, Antillas Holandesas, on May 19 and 20, 2009. The objective of these awards is to identify and distinguish the best practices and innovations in products and services Latin America and the Caribbean development banking, to acknowledge and highlight the work done by these institutions for the economic and social development of the countries in the region.

This Contest second Edition has recognized as good practices en la Financial Products Category to Agroamigo: Rural Microcredit Program, from Banco do Nordeste de Brasil. The objective of this program is to contribute in the development of family agriculture in the areas of activity of the Bank, by granting rural microcredits, oriented and accompanied, in a sustainable manner, and promoting the increase in the income and the improvement of the life quality of recipient families. This program is important because from the Bank’s experience in microcredits in urban areas, it develops a methodology to adapt it to the rural environment, base don the principles of orientation towards credit, accessibility through the credit advisor, presence in all the northeastern region and credit sustainability. This Program, created in 2005, has performed 567 thousand operations to February 2009. This amount is equivalent to US$245 million, covering 1,317 municipalities through 158 branches of the Bank. In this same category the Productive Chains Program, from Nacional Financiera S.N.C. (NAFIN), Mexico was presented an award. The objective of this program is to offer cash on accounts receivable to suppliers, carrying out electronic factoring operations.

The Program was developed under a modern mechanism supported on an Internet platform for the institution’s products and services reach the businesses massively at a low cost, in order to reactivate credit in the Mexican economy. As a result of the program, only in the last year 1.2 million enterprises have been benefited and operative costs have been reduced, as more than 90% of the volume of operations is carried out via Internet. The relationship with financial intermediaries has changed as paper transactions have disappeared; alliances have been entered with large public and private corporations, developing their value chains. With this initiative, the factoring market is attended in more than 60%, from the previous 2%.

In the category Management and Technologic Modernization, the winner was the Institutional Enhancing Program, from Federación de Cajas de Crédito y de Bancos de los Trabajadores (FEDECRÉDITO), from El Salvador. The objective of this program is to modernize and implement a self sustainable financial management and operative financial system integrating under the same platform and the same management principles and standards all the entities belonging to FEDECREDITO system. The use of the proposed schemes to improve the administrative and financial management of these institutions have made it possible to increase, in the 2003-2008 period, the deposits captured from US$43.6 million to US$189.1 million, the loan portfolio from US$233.7 million to US$568.8 million, the number of associates from 423 mil to 590 mil, and the net worth from US$71.4 million to US$145.5.

Finally, in the category Information, Technical Assistance and Social Responsibility,  the award went to Estratégia Negocial de Desenvolvimento Regional Sustentável - DRS, (Regional Development Business Strategy) from Banco do Brasil; through which the Bank wants to promote sustainable, inclusive and participative job and income generation, taking into account the local social, environmental, institutional, political and cultural characteristics. This will be economically viable, socially fair, environmentally correct, and will consider cultural diversity. This strategy represents an evolution in the Bank’s standing point as an agent of the development of the country as it has incorporated social, environmental and cultural variables in its investment decisions, and its business vision goes beyond the economic aspects. In order to implement this strategy, the Bank has developed a methodology based on the following stages: customer aware raising and training, identification of the productive activity to be developed, creation of DRS teams, preparation of the business plan, analysis, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Since the application of this strategy, 4,681 DRS business plans have been developed in 4,800 municipalities, with 1.210.743 involved in more than 100 different productive activities.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

Roberto Smith assumes ALIDE Presidency

The CXX Board of Directors’ Meeting took place in Medellin, Colombia, on March 30, took place on the occasion of the participation of the members of ALIDE’s Board of Directors in the Annual BID meeting.

The agenda included the presentation of the advances of ALIDE 39th Meeting of the General Assembly to be carried out in Curaçao. ALIDE 2009 – 2010 Work Plan was also approved. This Plan will be submitted to the General Assembly.

As the Presidency of the Association became vacant, after Dr. Luis Rebolledo from Peru left the Presidency of Corporación Financiera de Desarrollo (COFIDE), the Board of Directors appointed Dr. Roberto Smith as ALIDE President from Banco Nordeste do Brasil. Dr. Smith will hold the position until May 2010.

Additionally, the other vacancy in the position of Director left by Lic Oscar Pineda, President of Crédito Hipotecario Nacional de Guatemala, and according to ALIDE By-Laws, the Board of Directors completed the number of members by incorporating Eco. Fernando Calloia, President of Banco de la República Oriental del Uruguay (BROU) and Arch. Joaquín Gerónimo, General Manager of Banco Nacional de Fomento de la Vivienda y la Producción (BNV) from the Dominican Republic, as Directors.

E-LEARNING ALIDE receives international award

ALIDE at distance training program, E-Learning ALIDE, received the international award of the Contest Associations Make a Better World, granted by ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership from the United States of America.

This award started in 2002 to acknowledge successful programs undertaken by associations promoting beneficial impacts in the society and the world’s economies. E-Learning ALIDE participated with a group of projects put forward by the world associations and was the only winner in the category “developing countries”. The honorary mentions went to: (a) Azerbaijan Turkey Historical Research Foundation (ATAF), from Baku, Azerbaijan, with the Project: “Joint action for the regional peace as a model to the social and economic integration in Eurasia” and (b) Indonesian Institute for Corporate Directorship (IICD), from Jakarta, Indonesia, with the project: “Socialization of the best practices in good corporate governance and direction to implement the best practices in corporate governance.

The award was presented at the ASAE & the Center of Association Leadership Annual Meeting & Exposition that took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Center, in Toronto, Canada, from August 15 to 18, 2009, And was received by Rommel Acevedo, ALIDE General Secretary and Economist Jorge Montesinos, Chief of the Training and Cooperation Program and responsible for the project, traveled to Canada. This distinction was given by Mrs. Velma R. Hart, President of ASAE and Robin Lokerman, President of The Center of Association Leadership.

ALIDE AND THE CHINA DEVELOPMENT BANK SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT

During the course of the Thirty-eighth Regular Meeting of the General Assembly, ALIDE and the China Development Bank (CDB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote closer relations between China and the Latin American and Caribbean countries, with a view toward boosting trade and mobilizing resources and investments for the region’s development. 

Attention should also be drawn to the CDB’s incorporation as a new member of the Latin American Association.  Dai Danian, Member of the CDB Committee on Banking Matters declared it an honor for the Bank to belong to ALIDE and enter into closer relations with the ALIDE development banking members through business trasactions and financial and technical cooperation and by boosting the exchange of experiences between Latin American institutions and the CDB to benefit social and financial inclusion in our countries.

to the left, Dai Danian, Member of the CDB Committee on Banking Matters, and ALIDE President, Dr. Nicola Angelucci

ALIDE AND SEGIB TO PROMOTE IBERO-AMERICAN FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL COOPERATION

 The Agreement will facilitate the preparation of studies, holding of forums, advisory assistance and training for joint projects

Enrique Iglesias, Ibero-American Secretary General, and Rommel Acevedo, ALIDE Secretary General, on May 16 in Lima, Peru, signed a Cooperation Agreement between the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and ALIDE, the Latin American Association of Development Financing Institutions, aimed at promoting financial and technical cooperation and their contribution to Ibero-American economic development and integration.  

Under this Cooperation Agreement, ALIDE and SEGIB will undertake studies and research; training; the dissemination and exchange of information; consultancies; technical meetings; and forums and seminars, all of which will address important issues like economic and social development financing; financial cooperation and promotion of development-driven business and investment; financial mechanisms and regional integration; financial services to improve SME access to credit; guarantee systems; financial inclusion; environmental financing; development of technology to enhance bank deepening; remittances and local development; corporate governance in development financing institutions; and information and knowledge technologies.

Enrique Iglesias highlighted the importance of taking advantage of the growing concern today over SMEs and development financing, which open up major opportunities for institutions like ALIDE to act and work for the good of the region’s development.    In this connection, the signing of the ALIDE-SEGIB Cooperation Agreement seeks to make the most of ALIDE’s expertise and experience and carry out joint activities of common interest to enhance the countries’ economic and social progress.

Enrique Iglesias and Rommel Acevedo during the signing of the ALIDE-SEGIB Cooperation Agreement at ALIDE’s headquarters in Lima, Peru. 

 

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