WASHINGTON, DC, October 4, 2011—Sri Mulyani Indrawati, World Bank Managing Director, will participate in the Fifth Americas Competitiveness Forum to be celebrated in Santo Domingo October 5-7, it was announced today. Leonel Fernandez Reyna, President of the Dominican Republic and host of this hemispheric forum, will also be meeting the international official.
During the opening panel, “Education and Competitiveness from the Viewpoint of Multilateral Organizations”, Indrawati, former Indonesian Finance Minister, will talk about how to turn current educational challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean into opportunities to increase competitiveness in general. She will also stress the World Bank’s commitment to supporting the public and private sectors in the region to achieve sustained economic growth with opportunities for all.
The fifth iteration of the hemispheric competitiveness forum will be devoted to education and will be attended by more than one thousand leaders from the Americas, among them presidents, ministers, business and civil society leaders.
Indrawati—who heads all global World Bank operations—will meet President Leonel Fernandez on Thursday, October 6th to discuss ways for the Bank to continue supporting the country. She will be accompanied by Françoise Clottes, Director for the Caribbean, and by the Representative in the Dominican Republic, Roby Senderowitsch.
She will also maintain meetings with the Finance, Planning and Development Minister, Temistocles Montas, representatives from civil society and the private sector, and will visit several World Bank-financed projects in the country.
In fact, the Managing Director will visit a training center backed by the “Youth and Employment” project. This project has received US$25 million in financing from the WB and is implemented by the Labor and Education ministries with the goal of increasing employment opportunities and reducing the risks faced by unemployed youth.
Finally, on Friday, October 7th, Indrawati will participate in the inauguration of the “Third Accounting and Monitoring Workshop for the Anti-Corruption Participatory Initiative (IPAC, in Spanish)” which will take place at the Hilton Hotel in the Dominican capital from 8:00 am through 12:00 pm.
IPAC is a roundtable where the Government and different players in society can contribute to the improvement of transparency in Dominican society. It began in June 2010 following a request from the President’s Office, and is supported by 12 bilateral and multilateral cooperation organizations.
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About the World Bank’s support to the Dominican Republic
During the first half of the current Country Partnership Strategy (CPS), the Bank provided record levels of support to the country. Between 2009 and 2011, US$510 million were approved, including two US$58 million investment operations, US$10 million in additional financing, and two budget-support operations totaling US$300 million.
The Dominican Republic has received aid in the form of rapid financing from the World Bank to mitigate the effects of the 2008/9 global financial crisis. The Bank’s current portfolio is comprised of eight investment operations totaling US$266.9 million and non-refundable technical assistance in various sectors.
