Included were official delegations, business people and bankers, representatives of international and nongovernmental organizations, and the media. The Board of Governors, the IDB s highest authority, is made up of central bank presidents or ministers of finance, economy, or planning from the Bank s 46 member countries. The three days of official sessions were complemented by a large number of other events, including 11 seminars that brought together experts from around the world to discuss subjects relating to economic and social development in the region. Iglesias also proposed a series of goals for the region during this decade, including reducing poverty by half, doubling the economic growth rate to at least 6 percent, and speeding up public access to new technologies. These are the pillars of an attainable utopia, said Iglesias, a region of prosperous economies in which social justice and democracy hold sway, well positioned in the global marketplace.
Bank brings change.
In a videotaped message to the meeting, U.S. President Bill Clinton reflected on the work of the IDB during the past four decades. Clinton said that he will work to ensure that the IDB fully participates in the HIPC program. No country that is committed to lifting its people out of poverty should have to choose between paying its debt and educating its children, he said. The Bank governors unanimously elected U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers as chairman. He replaces French Finance Minister Laurent Fabius, who was represented at the ceremony by the secretary of state for foreign trade, Fran ois Huwart.