Two millennia ago, the disciples of Santiago carried the body of their teacher from Jerusalem, on a long journey of more than 4,000 kilometers across the Mediterranean that culminated in what we know today as Santiago de Compostela. A chapel was built over his body, which over the centuries became the cathedral in Santiago, an emblematic place for pilgrims from all over the planet.

This week, a delegation of authorities from Latin America and the Caribbean will land in Santiago de Compostela carrying, like walkers, great challenges, expectations and dreams. Delegations from Latin America and the Caribbean arrive with a well-defined plan: promote economic, trade and cooperative relations with the European Union (EU) and create new synergies to jointly face major global challenges such as climate change, digital transformation, food security or poverty reduction.

We started this journey of dialogue in Santiago de Chile last March, and we will arrive in Santiago de Compostela on September 15 to celebrate a historic meeting, organized by the Government of Spain and CAF -Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean-, which will bring together for the first time 33 the minister of economy and finance of the region with his 27 colleagues from the EU to create a program of European investments in key sectors of Latin American development, in accordance with the 2030 Agenda.

During these months, we followed our countries and promoted the consolidation of the Latin American bloc in various international areas. The most recent of these is the Summit of Public Development Banks Joint finances, held in Cartagena last week. Several issues raised will be re-discussed, including the need to direct Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) as well as conservation debt changes as mechanisms to increase capacity to respond to the current climate crisis.

The starting points of Europe and Latin America are different. But if we can understand that, we can quickly agree on a solution. In Santiago de Compostela, we must find common answers to adapt and mitigate climate change and protect natural capital. We will also need to create new instruments that stimulate economic growth and, in turn, reduce poverty and emissions and preserve biodiversity in order to preserve life on the planet.

This is a unique opportunity to deepen a mutually beneficial relationship. It is an opportunity to recover the Atlantic forest in South America, to talk about the Pampa, the Andes, Central America, the Trifinium, the Caribbean basin. We need to see the region as a complete space, not as parts of the continent. For example, we want Italian, German, French or Spanish companies to be able to come and produce batteries in the region and not be limited to buying lithium as raw material. We want them to be partners with Latin American governments and companies in the development of new technologies. As they did in China with the production of railways.

This new understanding of the relationship between the EU and the region permeates the investment agenda of the Global Gateway, the European bloc’s global investment and cooperation platform. So far, the EU has identified 136 projects, and OSRH will participate in at least 70 of them at the national and regional level. For example, we will provide connectivity to 85% of Colombians by 2026, help produce green hydrogen in Chile and Uruguay, and promote electromobility solutions in Bogotá, San José, Quito and Sao Paulo. The good news is that we have a methodology and commitment at the level of public development banks to give strength and form to these initiatives.

By launching these projects into implementation, we will have a region that is much greener, more sustainable and more prepared for climate change, and also more productive with better use of technologies. To do this, we need the key capacity that development banks have to ensure that these projects actually reach the right destination, ride the cycle, including the political cycles of countries, and prevent them from getting lost along the way.

And, in this sense, the role of multilateral development banks is crucial for concretizing the new European investment agenda. Regional, subregional and national development banks should work more harmoniously, exchange more information and knowledge. We cannot look at each other separately, but as a system. The EU-LAC business round table, organized by the European Commission, IDB and CAF, showed that good results can be achieved through joint work, from which investments of 45 billion euros arrived in the region from the EU.

The inhabitants of Latin America and the Caribbean expect concrete results from meetings like the one in Santiago de Compostela. For this reason, we must be ambitious to do our part in this project for the development and sustainability of Latin America and the Caribbean. This week, everything is ready for the delegations of Latin America and the Caribbean to leave their mark on the Latin American Camino de Santiago. (OR)