 Buongia. Buenos dias a todos y muchas gracias por acompañarnos. Al inicio del 2022, COVID-19 and its economic and social consequences are still a main concern all around the world. Governments have faced the big challenges of maintaining a balance between preserving lives and the need of saving economies, protecting economies. Their resilience has also been tested. They have had to adapt their strategies in order to adapt to new circumstances. In the case of Latin America, it is important to underline the differences between countries. And although they should be individually analyzed in general terms, the pandemic has ravaged the region that was already in a complex context in which social and economic problems have not yet been solved. Although economic recovery has been thriving, different problems could make this recovery more complex. The public opinion that was published in this forum report has been conducted in 18 countries of the region, garnering information on five different areas, ranging from technology to economy. The main concerns of the respondents to this query are centered on unemployment, democracy, deterioration, polarization, uncertainty in terms of public policy. And concerning the environment, we can mention natural disasters and the loss of biodiversity. In terms of diversity, the lack of biodiversity is also seen as a threat. So when it comes to economy, the main concern is on economic stagnation, debt, inflation, and volatility of prices of raw materials. The different measures in order to incentivate the economy were vital in order to protect people's revenues, also in order to guarantee their revenues to preserve jobs and to save companies. However, the burden of public debt has increased. Public budget will still be very, very tight, which underlines the need of major collaboration between public sector and private sector in order to face those challenges. Of course, there are positive aspects and many opportunities have emerged. Our region that has a lot of natural resources and very precious human capital should be at the spearhead of those opportunities in terms of energy transition, green jobs, green markets, modern infrastructure. And we should be preparing new generation using the new technology capacities and to align to the new opportunities in terms of jobs. So in a large scale, we need to preserve the potential of Latin America in order to face this great recovery. And we need, in order to do so, to learn the lessons that the past years have left in order to coordinate the new and new and more productive action. It is a privilege and an honor to receive Mr. President Duque from Colombia, President Alvarado from Costa Rica, President Lazo from Ecuador, President Chanmete from Guatemala, and President Castillo from Peru. President Claver Caron from the ITB also joins us. And we're going to be conducting a conversation on an outlook of the new opportunities and perspectives of Latin America and what it's needed in order to reach a sustainable development. Thank you so much, Marisol. Thank you so much for that thoughtful introduction. Marisol is our Latin America director at the World Economic Forum and a great friend and also a great promoter of Latin America at the World Economic Forum. As we all know, economically things look a lot better for Latin America in 2022 than in 2021. The economies are really reviving. We are expecting more than 7% economic growth. Of course, it's important that this growth is inclusive, creates decent jobs, and also are complying with sustainability. And we are so privileged to have these five statesmen from Latin America with us, the five presidents, and we're looking so much forward to hearing also from you how you look at 2022, what are your aspirations, and in which context are you operating? Let me first go to you, President Duque of Colombia, with that question. What are your aspirations for 2022, and in what context are you operating? Thank you very much, Borger. And a very special salutation to Mr. President Janmete, President Lazo, President Castillo, and President Alvarado. And of course, hello to Marisol Arigeta. And I would like to extend my salutations to our friend, Mr. President Mauricio Clavrecaron Borger. I would like to say one thing. Colombia has closed 2021 with very positive results, with an economic growth that is reaching, we hope so, 10 percent. Yesterday, we had results by the month of November. We have reached a great, a greater level of massive vaccination, and we have reached a new deal, a new Colombia deal, Colombian deal, which, so what are our goals for 2022? If they can be summarized as follows, a massive vaccination. We should keep reaching the highest figures for the first and second shots, and we are having more and more people that are getting the third shot. The second objective for Colombia is to place our growth above 5 percent and to promote economies of our region. Third, to recover all the sustainable levels in terms of jobs that we had before the pandemic. And something that is very important, we still need to keep closing the social gaps. In this area, we have different priorities. Now we have a general matriculation for 97 percent of higher education students. Second, we have consolidated a real growth in terms of minimum wage. We have built a lot of social housing and a lot of works, public works that were ever made in Colombia. So with all this, our goal is to keep up with the growth and to keep the same level in 2022. Our main objective, however, is to promote growth, but keep promoting equality and keep closing the social gaps in Colombia. Those are our priorities. Thank you so much, Mr. President. Muchas gracias. Let us then move to present Alvarado in Costa Rica. What are your expectations and goals for 2022? Welcome, Mr. President. Muchas gracias. Thank you very much, Borger. Thank you, Marisol. I would like to extend a very warm salutation to my homologues, different presidents that have joined us in this conversation, and also President Mr. Klaverkaran. It's a privilege to be joined by you all. So one of the main things, the most important things for Costa Rican is to keep going forward in this process of vaccination, which is the only exit for this health crisis. More than 85 percent of the Costa Rican population has been vaccinated with two shots, which is a very important point for our countries, which means that 70 percent of the local population, including children under five years old, have been fully vaccinated. And another very important data that I would like to share with you is that we have already started the process of vaccinating children from five to seven years. In terms of unemployment, we are still reaching the same levels that we have before the pandemic. However, we need to concentrate on the social gap and different gaps that the pandemic has left us. And all the governments in the region need to focus on that education has been affected. The pandemic has revealed a lot of inequalities in terms of education and how the education can reach our boys and girls. Education is the future, so we need to intervene there in order to reduce the gap in terms of education. So now when it comes to the environment, we need to integrate the environment within those components. We should not see the environment as a separated item. The World Economic Forum has pointed out that the main risk that the world is facing are linked to the loss of biodiversity and the climate change. So we need to take actions in that area. Different of tax spaces in Latin America have been affected by the pandemic and by the shrinkage of the economy. So we need to work all together within the region in order to give access to development to everybody. A lot of our countries, all of the population of our countries have been castigated by the pandemic from that point of view. And another fundamental problem that we are facing is that this group of different problems, so we have migration, we have unemployment, all of that can produce social unrest at different levels. I mean, there is no a sole solution, a sole action that can solve all the problems of the countries in Latin America. So I think that we need to act in different fronts in order to reach this transformation that we desire. And another thing that is key for us is reducing unemployment. We have a lot of challenges ahead. However, we are very happy for the progress that we have made so far. Thank you so much, Mr President. I know it's my honor to go to Ecuador and you, Mr President Lasso, the floor is yours. Good morning. Good morning, Borgo Brande. Hello, Marisol Arqueta. I would like also to greet my colleagues, presidents of Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. And also, like I said, my salutations to the president of the ITB, Mr Claver Corona 2021, was a very difficult year for Ecuador. If we compare that to the economic results of 2020, we can however say that this year was better for Ecuador. Nevertheless, the recovery that we have been promoted in terms of jobs has been very positive. We have recovered 70 percent of jobs that were lost during 2020 during the pandemic. We always have said, we have always said that the vaccination is not only a social or health program, but it is the main program that will enable social reactivations, social recovery up to date. If we take into account the population under five years old or from five years old on one, they have been vaccinated. 87 percent of the population had been vaccinated with one shot and with both shots, 82 percent. And the third shot has been administrated to around 15 percent of the population. And we are preparing ourselves so that starting from February 1, we're going to start vaccinating children from three to five year old. This vaccination plan, which has been very successful, has enabled us to face this new Omicron way in a better way, in a more prepared way. Hospitals have not been saturated, especially in the ICU's subsets. Our goal will be thus to reinforce this vaccination program. At the same time, we should understand the management that we have made of the pandemic within our societies. We should have open societies so that we can harness the power of this economic recovery. 2022 has started with a very important action and environmental action last Friday along with Mr. President Duque and the ministers of foreign affairs from Panama and ex-president Mr. Bill Clinton. We have inaugurated a new reserve in Mandat, which are 70,000 square kilometers of water in the Galapagos area. And this reserve will be part of a new sea corridor connecting with the Cocoa Island in Costa Rica, Malpelo in Colombia, and with Coiba in Panama. We have also had new actions targeting entrepreneurs, smaller entrepreneurs with new credits up to 30 years in order to reactivate popular economy and in order to reactivate the sectors that are in need of more support from the state. We are planning to champion a job reform in order to promote a job creation, especially in Ecuador. In the last 20 years, this indicator has not changed. Only three out of 10 Ecuadorians that are part of the active population in terms of the economy that have jobs, it's only three of them, 30% of them have a formal job. So that's why we need to reform the labor market. This will be part of a social and political reform. That's the main challenge of our government. And at the end of me of my intervention, I would like to mention this new trade agreement that we are reaching with Mexico that opens a new area for free trade in the Pacific and that will enable, will open the Ecuadorian economy and that will attract foreign investments. Thank you. Thank you so much, President Lazo. Let's now go to the two last presidents. We will then go to Guatemala. President Guillemate, great to see you and after you will go to Peru and President Castillo. So, President Guillemate, what are your aspirations and goals for this coming year and in which context are you operating? Thank you very much, Borger. Good afternoon to everyone, especially my colleagues, presidents of different countries of Latin America. Hello, Marisol. Hello, Mauricio. Thank you very much for allowing us to join the conversation. In terms of the economy, the pandemic of COVID-19 has left a lot of effects, a lot of impact. It has impacted our growth and we closed 2021 with a growth of 7.5 percent, which is above twice higher than our indicator in the last 25 years. So, our challenge this year is to keep up with it, with the economic recovery and we hope to reach 6 percent of economic growth for this year and we want to make sure that we keep recovering the labor market. Today, we have recovered, we are the same level of the pre-pandemic levels and this has been done because the country has been attracting a lot of foreign investment around $620 million and in 2021, this figure has been tripled. For this year, we hope that with the new train that has been built, we have already signed the contract, we are trying to change the geography of the country. We want to connect Guatemala to Canada using the same rails. We want to use that for our exports and we have already signed the new trade agreement with Mexico. So, I can say that in terms of Latin America integration, we are moving forward. We have conducted different actions with other countries such as Honduras and this reflects tighter and more effective interaction that enables us to have a better look on the situation and we have been fighting against trafficking and actually the budget for this year has not included more credits coming from abroad. We are facing this conjecture using our own resources. So, we hope that this year, we're going to reach the goal of $77 billion that we were aiming last year and we're going to go beyond that. We want to reach $82 billion and we hope we will have a growing economy and we hope to turn Guatemala into a destination for investments and last year, only concerning new investments, we have created more direct and indirect jobs. So, perspectives for this year should include that and they should also include a better access for vaccination. The vaccination program has not been open for children. We're still waiting for that and the vaccination program for children above 12 years old, it's still ongoing. We're vaccinating more than 100,000 people every day. This has been very difficult but we have made it and we have reached the goal of 60 percent of people that have been vaccinated which means 45 percent of double vaccinated people. However, we are still moving forward with this program. We also know that the Omicron variant will affect us, will leave a lot of consequences. However, the saturation of hospitals has not reached the same levels of last year. When I came to the office, the levels of hospital saturation were horrible but in the perspectives that we have now are better. So, the challenge that we have now is not only to promote our growth, it is not only that now the big challenge is to know how to turn this growth into something sustainable so that we can use the economic power that we have in order to recover the labor market and to stop illegal migration, creating more prosperity, more jobs, more housing, better health, better education, more security. So, the challenge nowadays is to make this growth into something sustainable and to generate more better conditions to prosperity. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's now a great pleasure to go to Lima and Peru and a warm welcome to you President Castillo. Great to see you and over to you and for your aspirations for the new year. Good morning, good afternoon, colleagues heads of state and authorities and to all the audience. Hello from Peru. Our main concern and priority since I came to office last July has been to overcome the serious crisis produced by COVID-19. This crisis has reached Peru at a very precarious moment in terms of the health system. We have had a lot of deaths to deplore. At the same time, one billion dollars have been affected to vaccines acquisitions. More than 70 million doses have entered the country. So, thanks to that, we have vaccinated more than 84 percent of the general population. This year, we're going to receive around 55 additional doses, 55 million additional doses. So this remarkable effort that we have managed to reach has helped us to reduce the number of victims. And this has been also accompanied by different tests, cryogenic tests, antigen tests and also we have hired thousands of technicians and professionals in the realm of health. The second priority is economic recovery, a sustainable and inclusive economic recovery. We have used around 10 billion dollars for public investments in strategic areas such as the education, transport and health. At the same time, we have unlocked investment projects and we have signed contracts for basic infrastructure which generates thousands of jobs. Those measures have enabled us and have allowed us and will keep allowing us to improve the economic situation of Peru. Peru has a general GDP of around 13 percent, has growth around 13 percent in 2021 and this figure actually has been affected by the pandemic. So, facing that, we should have, we have had to carry out economic reforms and we hope that those economic reforms are going to make their effects. So, the economic growth in Peru and in Latin America from July and October of last year, we have created more than 300,000 additional jobs, which is very important. So, this is why we're going to keep making making all the efforts possible in order to make sure that economic growth can be reflected upon jobs on creating quality jobs that will help the Peruvian population, especially those in need. On the other hand, the third priority for us is to promote private investment because it is the engine of social welfare and of economic recovery. In Peru, we want to reach an open sphere of trust for everyone. So, that's why we want to invest in energy, we want to modify the use of natural gas, especially in transport, so that we can make sure that all country is connected. So, in that area, our government sees this opportunity in order to invite entrepreneurs, national entrepreneurs and foreigners to invest in Peru because we are committed to be responsible with the economy. We want to create a legal framework that is beneficial for foreign investments. We are creating new contracts that will benefit our population. We reiterate that this is an open and transparent dialogue within the framework, within a legal framework. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. President. It's so great to have you with us. Based on the five very substantial and visionary contributions from the five leaders of Latin America, it is then just natural to go to President Claver Caron of IDB. And good morning to you in this sea. And based on these very important contributions, who does IDB perceive the region's outlook in the short and midterm? Welcome. Thanks so much. First of all, thanks to you. More you, Jorge. Thanks so much. Thanks to World Economic Forum. It's really great to be here. And it's such an honor to participate with these five presidents, President Duque, President Alvarado, President Elasso, President Jamate, President Castillo, for all dear friends. And they're just not five presidents. They're five leaders. What you've done here is you've highlighted here five success, diverse success stories of handling the pandemic, of fiscal management, of inflationary pressures, and focusing on growth. And we've worked really closely with all of them here at the IDB. And they're rightly focused on addressing today's macro outlooks and really generate the change that's needed. So thank you, all of you, for the leadership, great leaders from the region. Considering obviously the last few years, think about the future, which is what we're looking at. Not only has Latin America and the Caribbean avoided, and this is important, avoided a lost decade in macro terms. But today, what we need to be focused on is that we'd not have a decade of missed opportunities in regards to narrowing the socioeconomic gaps. And that's not going to be easy. And we know if you've heard from the presidents that we've heard today, obviously they're still recovering from the shocks, both economic and social, that were induced by COVID-19. And while we all know this has been primarily human tragedy and macro terms, we tracked, as you know, 7% loss of GDP in 2020, the worst single year contraction in the last two centuries, in 200 years. We also experienced a high mortality rate in 2021 from any country and any region in the world. So as expected, the countries of the region have been left with higher debts, they need to rebuild those fiscal buffers. And inflation around the world, it's a global issue, has picked up. So there's less room for expansionary monetary policy. Likewise, there's increasing inequality and the region has not yet recovered from all the jobs that were lost in the 2020 recession, although we'll see that there's progress there. However, and this is where I highlight however, because I always like to focus on the positive, despite those unprecedented impacts, 2021 saw stronger growth than projected. And that's so important. You know, in January 2021, everyone was crying, you heard all the numbers, you know, say bye, I am at World Bank, everybody all doom and gloom, 2%, 3%. And yet it was almost 7% growth in the region and higher growth is expected for at least 19 of our 26 borrowing members. And that's good news. And that's due to a lot of that hard work that growth was due to that hard work to the historic level of coordination across internal, external consideration, including fiscal monetary efforts that were implemented across the region. This past year, we've also seen a major increase. And this is so important in venture capital and e-commerce, which are now booming in parts of the region. And tourism is starting to show signs of picking up by the way, FinTechs, 35% of the world's FinTechs are in Latin America in the Caribbean. $20 billion in new investment in FinTechs have gone into the region this year. So what we have to do now as we enter this third year of fighting COVID and we face this critical juncture, obviously Omicron is going to increase uncertainty regarding the economic outlook and high commodity prices are also likely to recede. Or maybe not, we'll see the Federal Reserve has indicated it's going to raise interest rates this year. So that's going to have a cause and certainly have an impact on the asset purchase programs that are going to be phased out. And then you're going to start seeing some outflows, et cetera. We're all hearing that due to these structural issues, growth rates 2022 are converging to levels closer to 3%. But I'm hoping that's wrong again. And my job is to be a forecast breaker. I hate forecasts and that we break them so that we can hear the growth that we've heard from these great leaders throughout the region and that we can serve the development needs there. The region is uniquely and well placed. And that's why I'm so optimistic to take advantage of the growing global demand to overcome existing constraints. And we're seeing this in inflation, right? And Latin American can be the solution and not a victim of these inflationary trends. So we're driving progress to meet the opportunities for growth, competitiveness, digitalization, gender equality, climate friendly growth, the strengthening of value chains. That's how Latin American, the Caribbean can be an inflation breaker, can lead to a solution instead of being a victim. So I think we have a generational opportunity to benefit from supply chain discussions, which we're seeing an IDB is successfully promoting more than ever in the history of the region. We did almost $3 billion just on nearshoring investments in that regard. So investments, logistics, infrastructure, it's a powerhouse in this region for everything related to the export of food, agricultural products, and it's well positioned to promote those services and manufacture products with those high added value. I also think there's a huge opportunities for growth and competitiveness that can arise from digitalization, SMEs, gender quality. We've seen all of that in climate. This region is beginning to take those critically important steps to unleash the power of the private sector in new ways. You've heard it from all of these leaders here today with speed, innovation, and growth. And taken into account the pandemic, this region has turned the corner in recent weeks, despite earlier this year representing the majority of those COVID fatalities, we ended 2021 with nearly 60% of people already having two doses. So now Latin American, the Caribbean, which began the year as being a wave in the back of the line in regards to the vaccination, is now the leader of the world in vaccinations. And we're proud here at the IDB to have supported this effort with financing new tools and launching the region's recovery. So in the short long-term recovery, driving our vision 2025 strategy, we're determined to work with all these countries, with all these leaders, so the next decade is one of opportunities. And finally, I'm super excited to say that in doing so in 2021, the IDB set a new record of over $23 billion. We did over $23 billion in financing mobilization for those, for these countries, for our borrowing members, and that was made possible by people all across the region working with these new tools with a renewed effort to share our goals. So we're optimistic of 2022 is going to bring because we're going to break even those $23 billion record. Thank you so much. And thank you for injecting also some further energy and also optimism to the discussion. I would like to go back and start maybe in Central America with you, President Guillemotte of Guatemala. We know that migration is a big issue of great concern worldwide. Hence, the World Economic Forum has joined the partnership for Central America, this coalition to address the root causes of migration. I wonder, how is your government responding in terms of creating the enabling conditions locally for Guatemala's not to choose to migrate? You already touched on it in your opening speech, but maybe you could be even a bit more granular. Over to you. Thank you very much for that question, Berger. So we need to analyze migration from a structural point of view, not from a congenital point of view. Most of the time, we only tackle the immediate phenomenon, but we neglect the roots of migrations. We do believe we should tackle both things. In terms of the circumstances, the circumstitial causes, we have passed a bill in our Congress in order to cover those people working as maglers from our region to Latin America, and because this is one of the roots of migration. With this, we're telling the world that we have to generate prosperity walls because real walls do not stop migration. Those things that will stop migration is prosperity, more reasons for human beings to stay in their homelands. So this is why that's a message we're telling the world because we're object. We are the countries sending migrants all abroad, so we need to tackle that root cause. If people have jobs, if people have security, if people have health and quality education, people will not migrate. People migrate because they need to. For example, when we talk about climate change, it is clear that climate change is affecting our region and the Caribbean, and year after year, we need to rebuild everything in the country after the hurricane season, although only 33% of greenhouse gases are emitted by our region. We are suffering the causes or the consequences of climate change, and so that's why we need to generate new opportunities, and instead of concentrating on creating new opportunities, we are concentrating on rebuilding the country. So what we need to do is to create a world with more solidarity, with more investments, and we need to protect such investments within a legal framework. That's what we're working for. We're creating this new bill for investments so that foreign investments can come into the country with the same conditions, and a fair play. We will not change those conditions during the year so that they can feel safe to come and invest in Guatemala, and we're also reforming the strategic infrastructure in the country. We have reformed this infrastructure, and we've been doing that in the last 10 years. So now, new investors are coming to Guatemala in order to take advantage of the new structure created for investments, and we are promoting experts in order to create more workforce and more job opportunities. We are creating new opportunities for not only big corporations. We are also focusing on small and medium companies, because this is a main factor that will lead us to tackle poverty. This is why we're telling the whole world that we need to create a social responsibility for the consumers so that people can know which product can choose, because you can choose between two products. If you choose one product coming from a big corporation, you will not be helping the small producers. So people need to know that when you purchase a product, you are helping your fellow countrymen, and this is something that the consumers should know, because this will promote the national and local economy. This is one of the solutions that we have elaborated. The first solution, the first list of solutions, has been already validated and certified. We are opening new opportunities for experts, for products coming from or produced by poor producers. And in terms of migration, I can also say that we won't tackle migration if we do not concentrate on the reasons why people are migrating. We need to improve the conditions in their own country, because people do not migrate because they want to. They get a more complicated life if they choose to migrate. So this is why we're going to keep working in order to make sure that economic growth benefits even the smallest citizen, because even the smallest citizen should take advantage of this growth. There is no other way to get out of poverty if it is not work. So this is why our government should concentrate on generating new jobs and reforming the countries, reforming social programs in order to establish a link with our population and to cover the human needs. Thank you so much, Mr. President. Thank you for that leadership. It is a great challenge. Let me go back to you, President Lasso of Ecuador. You have been strongly emphasizing this vision related to promotion of democracy and political cohesion and dialogue in Ecuador. And this is, of course, an issue of great relevance across the region. So what is your message in this regard, in a more pan-Latin American context? In Ecuador, we have established what we have called a new way of government, a new government that is based on ethics and basic agreements reached within the government and with different sectors without any regard to political position, gender, etc. We need an economic and inclusive growth within the framework of the rule of law and with a fixed and with a tax program full of solidarity that promotes new opportunities that will benefit the whole population. The progress of our peoples do not only depend on economic growth, but it also depends on the quality of life of our population. So they also depend on social cohesion, on the respect of human rights, on tolerance, and on taking into account the opinion of minorities. And that has been the goal of my government. So this is why today in Ecuador we can proudly say that we have recovered essential principles such as freedom of speech, press freedom, and the balance between powers. And we have ended every form of political persecution. This is our vision, a vision that maybe answers your question. And so this is our position nowadays. Thank you. Thank you so much for that vision. Let me then go to Periu and your present Castillo. Great to have you with us. And as you know, the World Economic Forum has promoted the importance of stakeholder capitalism and that entails that the world should also increasingly acknowledge the importance of building a system to serve the interests of all stakeholders, not only those that are owning the stock in a company, but also to society at large. So I wonder, Mr. President, what is your vision on the role of government and business in creating value for society at large? I know you care a lot about this. Thank you very much. The pandemic has shown us that the market by itself cannot face global challenges in terms of health, in terms of education, in the environment or social matters. Periu agrees with the WEF when we say that the market needs a commitment from different states. States committed to reforms aiming at sustainable and inclusive development. At the same time, the states require the help of private companies to promote productive diversity. We need companies to invest in the employees, supporting them, supporting communities, and protecting the environment. Within such a context, such as nowadays, public and private cooperation is needed more than ever in order to reach our social environmental goals and in order to reveal trust among the different political actors. So within this context of social and economic recovery and rebuilding, trust the Peruvian state has a historic depth with the population in terms of education and health. Nowadays, we're carrying out different reforms aiming at reinforcing the first level of attention in the health system, and we want to find a new and better educational system. Nowadays, our government is focused on guaranteeing a safe return for boys and girls to educational institutions so that they can go back to school safely. Schools should be a safe place in terms of health, in terms of food, in terms of the cooperation with the family. At a midterm, we are accelerating social investment. We are trying to push forward our works in order to reach our educational goals. We need to invest 6 percent of the GDP in health and education. We want to use this budget to improve our conditions. Another debt that the Peruvian state has is the resolution of social conflicts and social upheaval. My government has inherited that. Those are historic problems, so it is important to say that our government agrees and that is with the population, and we are listening to the demands that were unheard for decades. So our position is clear. We want to promote a social dialogue because it is important. This social dialogue is crucial when it comes to finding a definite solution to social conflicts in different areas. The oil industry, the mining industry, the environmental areas are also important. But in order to do that, we need the investment of the private center in order to guarantee the social stability of our country. In this sense, the Peruvian government has been implementing a multi-sectorial strategy, including the participation of different actors of our country. That's how our government has started 2022. We are moving forward towards a satisfactory solution. We want to encompass all those operations. We have invited the private companies and the public sector to work on finding a solution for social conflicts because closing these social gaps is a matter for all of us. It's an important matter for all of us. We need to act with a lot of responsibility. We need to respect different cultures, traditions, peoples, and local communities. Thank you so much and thank you for underlining the importance of dialogue and also the social dialogue. Let's go back to Central America and to Costa Rica. We know that Costa Rica for decades has been at the forefront of the environmental agenda, the biodiversity agenda, and has shown commitment and leadership in this field. And what are Costa Rica's most important accomplishments related to the green economy in your viewpoint, Mr. President? Can that lesson and that policy also be applicable and an opportunity for the rest of Latin America? Thank you very much, Berga. One of the most important things for us was the carbonization plan of 2019 for us. So, back in the day, we adopted that plan within the framework of the Paris agreements. Let me give you a couple of examples of how this can benefit the environment, but it has also positive economic impacts. We have approved a hydrogen policy in Costa Rica, and within the next two months, we are going to establish a new rate for green hydrogen production by using renewable energies. And with the production accidents, we're going to use that in order to export green hydrogen. We're going to use that also to create jobs, attract investments, and create clean and green energy. So, this is an example of how environmental policies have not only economic impacts, but also environmental impacts. Another thing was the exploration of the El Coco Island. And this is a very big example of how letting America can come together. I would like to congratulate my friend, President Lasso, who enlarged the protected area of the Galapagos Island. And we have reached a very important agreement with Colombia and Panama in that area. So, those four countries that have come together have created a very good example for climate, for actions against climate change. One of the most remarkable things that we mentioned during the last COP26 in Glasgow was this example. And this will benefit not only the environment, but it will also benefit the future of our economies and the health of our economies, because the environment is not only the cherry on top of the cake, it's not an accessory. The environment is an important matter, and in the near future, this matter will become more and more important and will be a condition for investments and for consumers. They will, as countries, a certain level of compliance in terms of environmental issues. And this will, and if we fail to do so, many jobs will be at risk, present and future jobs. So, I think that we should keep doing that. Within the region, Latin America should not act as a region that is adapting environmental policies very late. We need to be at the spearhead of this. We need to give the example of what we can do when it comes to climate change, but we should also ask the most polluting countries to respect their commitments, to observe their commitments. So, in Costa Rica, the environmental policy is to be at the spearhead and to give the example that things can be done. And this is something that we have managed to do within the region. And I'm very proud of that. I'm very proud of my country, but I'm also very proud of my neighbour countries and my friends, my colleagues, the presidents of the region. Thank you so much. Let me continue on this nature and climate agenda and go to you, President Duque of Colombia. You have also shown a lot of leadership here, and your government has mobilised ambitious efforts and initiatives around the carbon neutrality and not at least the energy transition agenda. So, what are the key opportunities and challenges in this regard for Colombia and the region moving ahead? Thank you very much, Borgo. And once again, I would like to congratulate my colleagues for their interventions. I would like to underline that Colombia has a very ambitious and clear agenda, and that is aimed at results. It is result-oriented. We have just approved, almost anonymously, within the Congress. We have approved the Climate Action Bill that I would like to call the Climate Constitution of Colombia that makes sure that we will reach the net zero by 2050. But in order to reach that goal, we need to go through several steps. By 2030, we should reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by 51%. Within this bill, within this law, we have elaborated a list of different areas when we want to take action. And at the same time, I would like to talk about the energy matrix. At the beginning of my administration, we only had 28 megawatts of non-conventional renewable energy, only 0.2% of our energy assets. We are going to end this year with more than 2,000 megawatts in terms of capacity of renewable energies in Colombia. So, which means we're going to multiply we're going to multiply the capacity of renewable energies that we used to have at the beginning of my administration. All of this in order to accelerate the energy transition. Third thing, clean mobility. We have passed a law that incentivates the use of electric cars. Nowadays, we have the biggest electric cars fleet of Latin America. And the same goes of electric vehicles for freight. And we have more than 7,000 particular vehicles that have been purchased by our government. Two years ago, we launched an initiative of the Watch 3 trillion trees. We committed with a certain goal, more than 3 million trees planted this year. And we're going to reach this goal. And I'm very proud that we opened the road for green hydrogen in Colombia. We did that in two months ago. And we're going to have the first electrolyzer that is going to be installed in our country in the next weeks. And our industry is using oil in order to generate these new kinds of energy. I would like to underline also that we are using the contracts for natural preservation. And we are working with communities, farmers and local communities in order to launch a new carbon dynamic which is which is going to go along what we have been working on in this in this forum, the biodiversity, cities, protecting ecosystems and protecting nature. Colombia is the second country in terms of biodiversity in Latin America. We have 50% of plants in the world, 35% corresponds to the Amazonian forest. And Borga, I would like to say something else. Colombia only represents 0.6% of greenhouse emissions, but it is among the countries at most risk by the consequences of climate change. We will not wait until 2030. 30% of the Colombian territory will be declared as protected areas and which places at the spearhead of this of this issue. So we are actually we are actually complying with our commitments. And I would like to close my intervention by saying that today we need to make sure that all this green agenda is funded. We need to make sure that this climate action will not end up being something without any infrastructure or any progress. We need to establish priorities and this means more access to funding tools, more investment, long-term investments from the public and the private center in order to consolidate our fight for the net zero. And this should be a priority for the different regions in the region. So we need to work in order to do that. We need to work with the IDB because it is the instructor that should fund this initiative that will lead us to 2050. So this is why we have joined this initiative. We need to focus on this agenda, which is very good. However, it should be funded by the IDB. The IDB has always worked alongside with us, but the IDB should have more resources so that they can comply with the increased demand of funding. And Borger, I would like to say too that today the climate action is not an accessory. It's not a cost. Our region's competitiveness needs to be competitive from a green point of view. All the countries in the hemisphere do not believe the environment, but other countries within the same forum are working towards that goal, which means that $1 invested in our countries is a more responsible dollar in terms of harmony with the environment. And for us, this is a priority without a doubt. No, thank you so much, President Duque. Thank you for your leadership on the Amazon Basin and also for the $1 trillion trees initiative from Davos. I think your comments is a great segue also into President Claver Caron IDB. You heard President Duque here appealing for more investment and investments. And we know that investment is key for the region's economic recovery and also for the future. So what are in your view the strategic areas for investments to drive Latin America's recovery and productivity in the future? Over to you, NDC. Thank you. I appreciate it, Borger. And by the way, strategic is the key word there. Let me just say two quick things in regards to President Duque and thank you for the plug and the support of all the presidents here in regards to that. But it's all the more important that the IDB has the resources necessary because again, as inflation rises throughout the world globally, as interest rates go up, we're going to start seeing pressures. We're going to start seeing a lot of countries priced out of the markets. And the partnership with multilateral institutions, the partnership with the IDB, those countries that have created their portfolios with the IDB are going to help the region get through this area, whether it's transitory or long-term inflation, we don't know. There's not an academic debate, but we need to get through 2022 and that partnership with the IDB is going to be all the more important as we see this inflationary and interest rate pressures, all the more important in that regards. And President Castillo said something very important about public-private partnerships. Now is the time for private public partnerships. We're talking today about growth. We're talking today about opportunities. We're talking about recovery thanks to the greatest public-private partnership in modern history, which was the creation of a vaccine for COVID-19 within a year. So it's all the more important that we continue to focus on this. But you mentioned about these strategic pillars. Look, we have five strategic investment pillars that have this power, strengthening of value chains and the near-shoring, which we've talked a lot about, digitalization, small, medium-sized enterprises, that growth. That's where the formal jobs will come from when we help movement in that regards. Gender equality, which has a completely transformational opportunity for GDP in the region and climate action, as we've heard from President Abadalo and others and President Lasso and his leadership in that regards. I mean, these are huge opportunities in that regards and we're working harder than ever to really realize that growth opportunity in all of these areas. But the strategic value has to also depend on efficiency. And historically, investment has not only been low in the region, but it's led to lower levels of growth in Latin America and the Caribbean compared to other regions of the world. And given the importance of the region in the global scale, both of those are unacceptable when we're working. Among the root causes that we've seen in that regards is a lack of really of a well-developed capital markets that's led to lack of instruments and high economic volatility or working in that regards to help move past that. But we also need to improve investment environments and frameworks. And you're talking here to five leaders that have worked and have been really an example for the region on good investment environments and frameworks that are modern, transparent, business-friendly, that allow for those possible investment opportunities. Restoring levels of trust. We just did a report on trust here. That's going to be key, addressing persistent corruption, also going to be fundamental in this effort. So we're actively working with the countries to improve the quality of those investment frameworks for both public and private sector investment. And that's going to apply to their modernization as well as those sectors that they govern. Let me give you an example. Our economic simulations show that within two years of making the increased investment needed to digitalize service-positive net benefits begin to appear. And by the year 10, that can have like a growth of 6% of GDP. And that's going to mean that countries have to put those forward those investments today and be ready for the brief adjustment period during which economies can absorb those investments. But the medium to long-term benefits are undoubtedly clear. And one result to highlight is that in addition to producing that economic growth, digitalization of services is going to allow for improved inclusion as well. The real income of the two poorest quintiles would increase an average 60% more than the income of the two richest quintiles. And that's key. Also, increased level of transparency that digitalization is just key can bring is also going to improve investor and public confidence that's going to generate higher levels of growth. Let me reiterate, this is something that I've really been saying since the beginning of this crisis. The recovery will be largely driven by the private sector. And there's too much ground to be recovered and too much private sector potential. That's waiting to be tapped. And all these leaders have been looking to tap that and we've been working with them. What we've observed and what we've heard today is that all of our countries, large, small, wherever they may be on the political spectrum, know that investment is good for growth and prosperity. And that's also key. We talk about like political uncertainty. Look, whether you're from the left, the center or the right, everybody, every president in this region agrees that investment is key and foreign directors, investment is key. And I'm proud to say that in addition to the work that I previously mentioned, we've done a lot this year in the IDB to attract private investment to the region more than any time in our 61-year history. Along with the strategic approach, we had the network of investment promotion events. We did have Ecuador, Guatemala, and others. We generated over $50 billion in deals for the region in 2021. We're also rapidly expanding the largest private sector coalition in the history bank that we created last year, one of the 40 of the biggest companies in the world to over 150. We're starting to look like the world economic forum here. And we've had a record level, record level of mobilization by a private sector arm IDB Invest. When I ran for president IDB, I said mobilizing 50 cents for every dollar we invest from IDB Invest is unacceptable. This year, we've done dollar for dollar, a record in the history of this bank. So there's widespread interest in the region on the private sector side. We're working together, and I think this is going to have huge, huge potential, huge opportunities, and we're going to take advantage of them. No, thank you so much. We had a great interaction, and the time has been running so fast. So I would love to go back to just each of the presidents for one minute closing remarks, aspirations for the new year, but also regional challenges needs regional solutions. So I wonder if we could be able then to stick to one minute each, because I think we all want to close on time at 5.15. So let me go first to present Jamati in Guatemala as a president. One minute is very short to tell everything, but we have to have a much, a world in which there is much more solidarity. We have to have more interaction in the country. Our main commercial partner is the region. Guatemala has a program which stems from the private initiative with a public initiative, and like that, we'll be able to overcome this 15 or 100 years of lacking back, but we have to get together, join hands, and really push and promote the trade and vaccines and anything we need to overcome the pandemics at the regional level. There is this period here in Latin America to try to find all the conditions at the local level, but we have to look for alliances with a greater countries such as Mexico and the United States, and remove barriers thanks to walls and walls of prosperity. Well, thank you so much. That was really well done in one minute. Let me then go to Peru and you present Castillo. Over to you. United Latin America is of the utmost importance to think solutions and find them to have a development model which up to now has not been enough, even before the pandemic. Many years ago, the economic progress in our region was stagnant, completely stagnant, and inequalities have worsened with the pandemic, so it's of the utmost importance that the Peruvian people are united and all the Latin American people are united and all of us here are united, and not only from an economic standpoint. Of course, economic growth is necessary, but it is also absolutely necessary to implement, to design and implement social policies, especially in education and health and employment generation to try to comply with the economic goals, sustainable economic goals. So we need to be solidary among ourselves, for instance, in food safety, in food security, universal access to health and education, leisure, foreign investment, a fight against terrorism, organized crime and corruption. We think that protection, protecting the human rights and protecting everybody's rights, gender equality, the respect to indigenous peoples, well, our government is convinced that Latin American integration is far more important than all the aspects that separate us, that divide us. So it's important that the life and the health of our citizens, the economy of all the populations, the defense of democracy and institutions, for instance, what was said with this encounter today, well, this is a way to show that there is a genuine interest for Latin America that follows a common agenda. All the people here present, we are brothers in political will to have a solidarity and cooperation in Latin America all together. Thank you. Rado Costa Rica and then President Duque. Thank you very much, Borga. First of all, I think that during the pandemic it was shown that there is a huge inequality in the world, of course, within the countries too, but also inequalities among countries. And I think that many of the countries really responded, the richest ones, with a strategy of auto-protection, self-protection, which was aligned with some kind of selfishness. And as Mauricio has just said, the president of IDB today, Latin America, shows that it's one of the regions where vaccination is the most advanced. And that's to say that we have population that is willing to get vaccinated, but we didn't have the vaccines to do so. And this would have radically changed all the economical situation. The most intelligent strategy at a regional and a global level is solidarity. And in Latin America, the solidarity has to do with what President Jamate was saying and President Castillo was saying, a common agenda. This common agenda that transcends ideologies, but it's to the benefit of our peoples is one of the great tasks that are still pending in our region. The building of a common agenda that overcomes the differences in ideology, but that covers all the interests of all our citizens. The example of the ocean of our four countries shows what we are capable of doing when we are together. And this is something that we would have to do also in the spaces of a regional forum to build a huge force of transformation in Latin America. Thanks to the World Economic Forum and Marisol for giving us this opportunity to speak. Thank you very much, Borga. And thanks to all my colleagues here. I would just like to close this meeting saying that we need to reinforce multilateralism, reinforce in the and then community of nations of whom President Lasso is now president. We are going to give the presidency of all of other forum to Mexico now prosur to with the presidency of Uruguay. But now we need to also reinforce for instance the organization of American states and caracom too with the Caribbean region. And we need to reinforce the financial institutions in our hemisphere, reinforce IDB, capitalize it, reinforce CA from Plata to reinforce all the financing network. But starting with the Inter-American Development Bank, this is absolutely crucial to go on working with CAF and the other organisms because the financing organisms need to grow to accompany Latin America. And something else which is really important is to reinforce democracy in our Southern hemisphere. We have a democratic chart in Latin America and we need to understand that development needs to be built in democracy. And democracy means to defend the economic freedoms. Any threat to these free initiative way of working has to be questioned. And we need of course to defend equity and fight against inequalities. And I want to say that in Colombia we are we are we have increased the minimum revenue as we had never done before in 50 years. It's a greatest investment that we have that any government has had, all respecting freedoms, social freedoms. Thank you. Thank you and President Lasso Ecuador. Thank you. The world has challenges that are not common and that cannot be dealt with separately. What can just one country do to fight against climate change, for instance? We need the commitment of everybody here. We need the integration of everybody for common goals that each country be more and more present in the world and that the world be more and more present in each country. I agree with the views of my colleagues here about the need of insisting and encouraging and strengthening all the regional integration mechanisms. And I particularly agree with my dear friend, the president of Colombia, Ivan Duque. As for Ecuador, these last 15 years we have lost, we have been losing a bit of time. And now we need to recover it, integrating Ecuador in the world and the world in Ecuador. And this is based upon a very, very simple concept. In the world we have 7.4 billion inhabitants and in Ecuador we are only 17,700,000 Ecuadorians. So we need to sell more to the world. We need to sell more to the world and this means more jobs in Ecuador. And we need to receive here more foreign investment in Ecuador because this means more jobs and more opportunities for Equatorians. That's why we have set ourselves some goals. For instance, in the next three years we want to subscribe 10 trade agreements. We are pursuing a trade agreement with Mexico, for instance, because this will enable us to access to the Pacific Alliance. And we have also trade agreements with the United States, Japan, South Korea, China, Israel, Canada, Panama, the Republic, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica. Let's just say this is the hugest trade agreements. All these trade agreements will benefit the Equatorian population. It's diplomacy through and for the prosperity of the Equatorian population. I thank the World Economic Forum for this opportunity that they have given us to participate in this important event and to give here our views about all the subjects that you have posted. So thank you very much, Morgan Brandy. Thanks also to Mauricio Claver Caron. Thanks to Marisol too and thanks to our my colleagues here from Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica and Guatemala and Colombia again. So thank you and greetings to all of you. Thank you, Mr. President. Let me at the end give you a present Claver Caron IDB 30 seconds to do closing remarks because we've already terminated it's our time but I know you're an effective speaker. Don't worry, I'm going to speak really fast. But first of all, thank you very much. Thank you President Duke and thanks to everybody. I thank you for your support. IDB is the best proposal for all Latin America. It's an issue that we talk about but little is done. We just did a great new report on trust. I recommend everybody reads it around the world. Trust is inhibiting the lack of trust inhibiting the inclusive sustainable growth is undermining long-term development goals. We see confidence levels in Latin America and the Caribbean are a quarter of those in OECD countries. Any country that wants to attract investment and share sound and social economic development must accept a simple fact. Establishing trust is essential from everything, job creation, public health, public safety, rule of law, democracy. We need that is essential. I trust all five leaders here. They have done a good job. You're hearing from them what they're doing. Any investor out there needs to look at these countries. These are opportunities. Let me tell you, at the beginning of 2020, I'm going to shut up with this. At the beginning of 2021, we had everyone was doom and gloom. I was right here doom and gloom. It was going to be Latin America, lost decade, lowest growth in the region, no vaccination, et cetera. Here we are January 2022. 2021 had surpassed any other region in the world in growth. All the forecasts were wrong and it's a leader in vaccines. Let's give the region the credit and merits, the trusted merits. Let's look at these opportunities and IDB is a great partner for that. Thank you so much and thank you, Wef, also a great partner in that regard. Appreciate the opportunity. Thank you so much. I would like on behalf of Marisol and the Latin America team that has done a great job to bring you all together here to thank you so much. I found this conversation and discussion very fruitful. Thank you for your leadership and thank you for being part of this community. The World Economic Forum wants to be a partner with you on the digital transformation, the nature and climate transformation that we're faced with, but also when it comes to ensuring that growth in the future and we are again seeing growth in Latin America is going to be more inclusive and also create a lot of decent jobs for a lot of young people in Latin America. So thank you so much for joining us. Muchas gracias. It's been a great session. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Muchas gracias. Adios.