The president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on Wednesday stressed Colombia’s dynamic economy and potential as an offset market for U.S. products and services.
In a column in The Huffington Post, IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno, praised Colombia and Brazil for embodying “the dramatic economic and social advances that have changed the face of Latin America over the last decade.”
According to the Colombian-born IDB director, his country “has emerged from its long, dark night of protracted war against its drug cartels and extremist armed groups to become one of the most dynamic economies in a region where growth was more than three times higher last year than the world’s most developed countries.”
Moreno stressed that the economic growth and purchasing power of Latin American economies like that of Colombia is creating business opportunities on both ends of the hemisphere.
“Think of the growing demand for cell phones, software, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, construction equipment, travel and entertainment that the U.S. could provide. Imagine the possibilities for Latinos in the U.S. to deepen their economic ties with companies and markets in their countries of origin,” the IDB president wrote.
“Serious challenges remain, including recurrent inflationary pressures and currency fluctuations that could harm exports. The sharp drop in the region’s stocks last week show that they are not immune to the market volatility in Asia, Europe and on Wall Street. Another global crisis could lead to an economic slowdown in China, in turn driving down demand and prices for the region’s commodities. To protect against these risks, Latin America and the Caribbean must do more to improve education, foster innovation, build new infrastructure and remove trade barriers and other obstacles to growth,” Moreno advised.
Adding to this, the IDB president wrote that both the Colombian and Brazilian economies have recently shown flexibility to recover from economic down turns and are increasingly able to keep up with the North American economies.
“For a refreshing reminder of the quintessentially American optimism, energy and drive that historically have gone hand-in-hand with opportunity, I say: Go south, my friends. Go south,” Moreno concluded