World Bank and Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) co-organized a seminar “Asia and Latin America: The Rising South or the End of an Era?” on May 13, 2016, on the occasion of the visit by Augusto de la Torre, World Bank Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean.
In the last two decades alone, wealth has shifted so profoundly that the simple, old North-South hierarchy—where the North were the rich few and the South were the many poor countries of the world—is no longer a given. During the commodity boom of the 2000s, average growth rates in Latin America and the Caribbean reached nearly 5 percent. Moreover, income growth of the poorest 40 percent was higher than in any other region of the world, relative to the total population, making growth also equitable. Global economic activity, however, has slowed down since then and medium-term growth prospects for countries in the region have diminished considerably. This poses new challenges to all developing economies, not only those in Latin America. Indeed, disappointing growth in major emerging economies around the world raises important concerns, threatening the social gains achieved in the past 15 years, particularly considering that two thirds of the extreme poor in the world still live in middle-income countries.
Yasusuke Tsukagoshi, Special Representative, Japan, World Bank, opened the seminar by delivering his opening remarks, followed by Augusto de la Torre, World Bank Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean, delivered his keynote speech featuring a report “Latin America and the Rising South: Changing World, Changing Priorities” in May last year, Naoyuki Yoshino, Dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADB Institute), served as a commentator. This seminar, jointly organized by the World Bank and the ADB Institute, was an effort to bring together influential analysts to discuss the future of the rising South, which has already left an indelible mark on the world economy.
 |
Program:
Opening Remarks
Yasusuke Tsukagoshi, Special Representative, Japan, World Bank Group
Keynote Speech
Augusto de la Torre, Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean, World Bank
Presentation Material: Latin America and the Rise of the South At a Crossroads (PDF)
Comment
Naoyuki Yoshino, Dean, Asian Development Bank Institute (ADB Institute)
Speaker
Augusto de la Torre Augusto de la Torre, is the Chief Economist for Latin American and the Caribbean. Before his appointment as the region’s Chief Economist, Augusto de la Torre was a Senior Advisor responsible for financial matters in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since joining the Bank in October 1997, he has published extensively on a broad range of macroeconomic and financial development topics. Prior to joining the Bank, Augusto was President of Ecuador’s Central Bank and an International Monetary Fund Economist, including the IMF’s Resident Representative in Venezuela (1991-1992). He earned his M.A. and Ph.D in Economics from the University of Notre Dame and holds a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the Catholic University of Ecuador. |
Commentator
 Naoyuki Yoshino Naoyuki Yoshino is Dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADB Institute) ; professor emeritus of Keio University, in Tokyo, Japan; and senior adviser at the Japan Financial Services Agency’s (FSA) Financial Research Center (FSA Institute). He obtained his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1979, where his thesis supervisor was Sir Alan Walters (who was Margaret Thatcher’s economic adviser). He was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States) and has been a visiting professor at various universities including the University of New South Wales (Australia), Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (France), and University of Gothenburg (Sweden). He was an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and an economics professor at Keio University from 1991 to 2014. He was appointed chair of the Financial Planning Standards Board in 2007, and also served as chairperson of the Japanese Ministry of Finance’s Council on Foreign Exchange and its Fiscal System Council (Fiscal Investment and Loan Program Section). He was also a board member of the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan, chairperson of the Meeting of Japanese Government Bond Investors (Ministry of Finance), and was president of the Financial System Council of the Government of Japan. He was conferred honorary doctorates by the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) in 2004 and by Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany) in 2013; he also received the Fukuzawa Award for his contribution to academic research in 2013. |
Related:
World Bank and ADB Institute Joint Seminar “Global Economic Prospects (GEP): Spillovers amid Weak Growth” (February 18, 2016)
World Bank and ADB Institute Joint Seminar “Global Economic Prospects (GEP): The Global Economy in Transition" (July 6, 2015)