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View of the closing session of the 54th Annual Meeting of Governors of the Bank, held on March 17 in Panama City, Panama

The board of governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), who met in Panama City last week, gave the go-ahead to restructure its internal policies to help streamline its cooperation with the private sector, to which it will loan some $2 billion this year.

IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno, of Colombia, said that the restructuring seeks to unify the four departments that deal with the private sector, which the bank has identified as the future engine of growth in Latin America.

“Today, the checkered flag has been given for the start of the restructuring,” said Moreno at the end of the annual assembly, which met for two days. The meeting attracted the Finance Ministers or Central Bank Governors from the 48 countries that make up the IDB, which was founded in 1959.

The IDB expects to fund projects this year totalling $12 billion, about which $2 billion will be in the private sector.

The multilateral agency was informed during the meeting that China will give $2 billion to a new fund that will manage IDB resources channelled “toward development projects that require additional funding to make them viable.”