Development bank CEO to address economic challenges in Latin America

Bolivian economist L. Enrique García Rodríguez, chief executive officer of the CAF Development Bank of Latin America, will deliver a lecture at 5 p.m. Thursday (Nov. 12) in the Hesburgh Center auditorium at the University of Notre Dame.

Titled “Latin America’s Development Challenges,” the lecture is sponsored by Notre Dame International, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the Mendoza College of Business and will include an examination of positives and negatives related to Latin American economics, bottlenecks that must be addressed and possible solutions. The address will be followed by a reception and is open to the public.

Notre Dame’s president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., invited García to campus to speak to students, faculty, staff and others interested in learning more about development trends and challenges in Latin America.

“We are honored and delighted that Enrique will be engaging with the Notre Dame and broader communities on this crucial and timely topic,” Father Jenkins said. “He is a visionary leader who is widely recognized throughout the world for his extraordinary accomplishments in promoting economic development in Latin America.”

Currently also a visiting professor in practice in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics, García has been CEO of CAF since 1991 and prior to that was head of Bolivia’s economic and social Cabinet, acting on behalf of his country as governor at the World Bank. He has served as a member of the development committee of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund. García earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics and finance from St. Louis University and conducted doctoral studies at American University.

CAF (Corporación Andina de Fomento) is a development bank created in 1970 and includes 19 countries — 17 in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Spain and Portugal — and 14 private banks in the region. It promotes a sustainable development model through credit operations, non-reimbursable resources and support in the technical and financial structuring of projects in the public and private sectors of Latin America.