Transfer of the chair of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development

Mr. Secretary General, Luis Almagro,

Madam Executive Secretary for Integral Development, Kim Osborne,

His Excellency Ambassador Gustavo Adrianzén, Permanent Representative of Peru,

Ambassadors,

It is a great honor to address you today on assuming the chair of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI). We take on this responsibility with a deep commitment to the integral development pillar of this Organization.

It has fallen to us to chair this Council on three occasions; the last time was exactly 20 years ago.

I wish to begin by expressing our sincere gratitude to the Ambassador of Peru, Gustavo Adrianzén, for his outstanding leadership as Chair of CIDI during the first half of this year.

During his term, the Council addressed subjects of the highest importance for our region, notably the regional plan for climate financing in the Americas, the decarbonization of the Americas, and the use of science and data for disaster risk management. These conversations paved the way for important agreements in the framework of the Fifty-third General Assembly.

Dear colleagues, allow me to share with you the subjects we will address in the meetings of CIDI during the period from July to December.

1. Sustainable tourism as a model of development, which we will address at the first meeting this month of July. We will encourage debate on good practices in the area of sustainable tourism and their impact on the development of communities. It will be a valuable opportunity to hear the experiences of the states.

2. In August, we will focus our attention on neobanks and their impact as a model of development in the financial sector. We will concentrate on understanding how neobanks are changing our societies through the financial inclusion of the population. We will share good practices and experiences from the perspective both of the private sector and of the regulators of the countries of our region. It will be an opportunity to explore the advances and challenges related to digitalization in the financial sphere, thus promoting greater collaboration among our member states.

3. In September, we will focus on trade integration and supply chains. We have all experienced the impacts of COVID-19 and of the current conflict in Ukraine on supply chains. We will analyze the current state of regional trade integration and the fundamental role that states play in the restructuring of those chains. It will be a valuable opportunity to share successful experiences and models in trade integration and supply chain management in our region.

4. Climate change is affecting our lives in various ways, from droughts to rising sea levels and the loss of biodiversity. The transition to clean energy has become a priority for our states.

For that reason, in October, we will share best practices, effective legal frameworks and progress in the transition to clean energy sources. This subject is especially relevant for the Dominican Republic, since it will serve as a prelude to the meeting of Ministers of Energy to be held in Punta Cana in March 2024. Among the subjects to be considered are green hydrogen and electric mobility.

5. In November, we will advance a conversation on culture and the orange economy. We hope that this meeting will be an important starting point for the next Ministerial Meeting on Culture, scheduled to take place in the Dominican Republic in 2025. It will be an opportunity to exchange ideas and explore how culture can drive sustainable economic growth in our region.

6. As the last subject, in December we will focus on some of the challenges and repercussions of climate change. In particular, we will promote a conversation on sea level rise, in terms both of international law and maritime boundaries and of food security and human displacement. We will also address the ecological phenomenon of sargassum, endemic to our hemisphere, whose worsening affects navigation, fishing and the tourism industry. During this meeting we will seek to go deeper into this subject and assess possible joint actions to confront these challenges.

Dear colleagues,

These six subjects reflect our continuing efforts to address current and future challenges, promoting integral and sustainable development in our America.

We wish to encourage you to prepare from now on for the work that lies ahead.

From the Dominican Republic, we reaffirm our commitment to support all the efforts of the Organization of American States to promote a prosperous and sustainable future for all the countries of the Americas.

Thank you very much!