CALIBAN

The world's oldest and largest regional development bank started off the year with a new administration and a new lending framework that purport to permit “greater flexibility and a sharpened country focus for loans and grants to support the economic and social development of Latin America and the Caribbean.” Former Colombian Ambassador to the United States, Luis Alberto Moreno assumed office succeeding Enrique V. Iglesias as head of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on October 1, 2005. Moreno's priorities reportedly include pushing forward the hemispheric trade agenda and competitiveness.

Bank lending grew 17% in 2005 over 2004, reaching US$ 7 billion. Over half of the IDB's lending in 2005 was destined to poverty reduction and social equity programs. The IDB, founded in 1959 to promote economic and social development as well as regional integration, currently has 47 member countries and offices in all borrowing countries plus the European Union and Japan. Its headquarters is in Washington D.C..