Saturday, in the region of Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, has ended the 55th Annual Meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in which member countries have called for the strengthening of the institution in order to reduce the poverty and inequality in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Haiti was represented by senior officials of the Ministry of Economy and Finance in the absence of the Minister of Economy Wilson Laleau, retained in Port-au-Prince because of his busy schedule, especially because of the visit of Prime Minister of Vietnam accompanied by Investors seeking opportunities.

During this meeting, the Haitian delegation held several working sessions with representatives of countries of North America, Caribbean Europe and Latin America to report on progress in the country and get their support, so that the IDB maintains its annual disbursement of non-refundable funds of U.S. $ 200 million per year for ten years.

The members of the delegation on the instructions of Minister of Economy Wilson Laleau have clearly expressed their opposition to the idea advanced by some countries, seeking to convince the Board of Directors of the IDB to return on the commitments made in 2010 with Haiti, for use part of the funds provided for Haiti, through the granting of a loan for the recapitalization of the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the IDB

Following the meetings of Governors, Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank announced the continuation of the program for the reconstruction of Haiti "The Governors of the Institution prefer to explore another option for the recapitalization of MIF, thus, the program for the disbursement of $200 million per year to the benefit of Haiti will continue [...] Haitians should not worry, the IDB is there o support the development of their country," also announcing his arrival in Haiti in the month of May, to to follow up on projects funded by the institution, within the framework of reconstruction program.

The Next annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank will be held in South Korea.

HL/ HaitiLibre