This session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 examines challenges and opportunities affecting economic growth in Latin America and discusses strategies to unlock the region’s potential.
At Davos 2026, leaders debated how Latin America can “grow more” and finally break its long-running 2–3% ceiling. IDB Invest CEO James Scriven argued the region’s fundamentals are strong—critical minerals, renewables, and proximity to North America—but “the biggest challenge is investment and productivity,” constrained by “uncertainty and lack of trust.” He positioned development finance as a risk-mitigation bridge for private capital, from construction and credit risk to convertibility and expropriation.
Peru’s central bank governor Julio Velarde pushed back on the narrative of exceptional regional fragility, noting that compared with today’s global tariff volatility, Latin America can look relatively predictable. He emphasized institution-building and education as long-term growth levers.
Brazil’s minister Esther Dweck described a pragmatic mix: fiscal rule redesign, revived public investment to crowd in private investment, redistribution as a growth engine, and tax simplification—plus diplomacy to defuse tariff shocks and the EU–Mercosur deal as strategic diversification.
Mexico’s Altagracia Gómez Sierra outlined “Plan Mexico,” targeting investment at 25% of GDP by 2026 and permitting times cut from 2.7 years to one, anchored in industrial policy, logistics upgrades, and inclusion.
Bancolombia CEO Juan Carlos Mora warned internal political volatility and weak rule clarity remain the biggest deterrents. Technology and AI surfaced as the next frontier—especially data centers powered by cheap renewables—yet speakers agreed the “magic sauce” is still missing.
Well good morning, everybody, and welcome to a session to discuss the future of Latin America and its growth trajectory. My name is Gillian Tett. I'm both a columnist at the Financial Times and part of the editorial board. I'm also overseeing King's College in Cambridge, where we have a large collection of Latin American scholars who are very interested in what's happening in the region. Now, I have to be honest and say that when I first started planning for this panel a couple of weeks ago, I thought that Latin America was going to be center stage in a lot of the Davos dialogues, partly because of what the president did in Venezuela. Well, the one thing we've learned as journalists with the president is what happened yesterday. It does not necessarily mean that we know what's going to happen tomorrow. And so this week it's all about the North Pole instead, which might be a blessing or a curse, depending on how you feel. But the reality is that what the president did in Venezuela has left political risk insurance premiums surging across the area. It's put a lot of focus on where the continent is going. In an era of the so-called Donroe doctrine. It's made it clear that there is growing emphasis on whether or not Latin America can grow or not. Because one thing we know is the president really only respects strength and growth, and is also raised a lot of geopolitical questions about where the region is going as it tries to navigate its relationship with China, which has been deepening in recent years alongside its relationship with its northern neighbor. And of course, the rest of the world. And we've just seen the Eu-mercosur deal signed, which potentially shows that for all of the storm and drama, in fact, trade and trade deals are certainly not dead. In fact, people are looking for alternative ways to create growth in the modern era. So we have a truly fantastic group of people to discuss that with us from different perspectives. On my immediate left, your right is Esther Dweck, who's the Minister of Management and Innovation in Public Services of Brazil, particularly well placed to talk to us about what's happening in Mercosur. We've got Juan Carlos, I'm sorry, next to, I'm looking at the sorry. Next to her is Julio Velarde, who's a governor of the central Bank of Peru. Widely acclaimed for his management of the Peruvian monetary system, even amid what might be called some political headwinds and turmoil. Next to him is, James Griffin, who's the chief executive officer of IDB Invest in Washington. And next to him at the end is Juan Carlos Mora, who's the chief executive officer of Bancolombia in Colombia. So a combination of perspectives and later on we'll be joined by the other panelist at the end. But I'm going to start with James, because you are an outside observer on the region. I'd like to ask, how do you see the region right now in terms of its growth trajectory? What does it need to do? And then I'm going to turn to the three of you to ask to respond to his advice.
Great. Thank you very much. So I'm here representing the IDB Group, the Inter-American development Bank Group, the largest development institution in Latin America and the Caribbean. And probably related to the question that you're asking, IDB investors, the private sector arm of the IDB Group. I think what what today Latin America is facing, I think is part of the discussion that we're going to have is not necessarily macroeconomic stability. I think that has been relatively stable over the last decade. But what we are facing today is other constraints to investments. And let me start by the positive side. Latin America is blessed. Latin America and the Caribbean are blessed by natural resources. If you think about value chains, connectivity with the US and Canada, if you're thinking about critical minerals, if you're thinking about renewable energy, the place to be is Latin America and the Caribbean. So I think there are enormous positives that relate to opportunities that we see. But what has happened or has been happening over the decades is other things are worrying investments to come in. So today, for us, the biggest challenge is investment and productivity. And I'm going to refer to what we consider as some of the constraints for that to happen. One low investments and weak productivity relate to the level of investments that each of us, our countries, the private sector are doing in our economies way below any of the more developed markets in the world. We've got smaller markets compared to what would be Europe. If you think as global, you think about Asia. So integrating trade across and within the region is going to be an important aspect of for it. The biggest constraint that we're seeing is uncertainty and lack of trust. If you look across the region, one of the biggest constraints that we're seeing is a lot of volatility in the audience. We have my former boss, Luis Alberto Moreno. When we were traveling to the Middle East, he coined a phrase that I thought was very interesting to the Spanish in Latin America is not for beginners. And then I think that refers to the complexity of operating in Latin America and the Caribbean, how we can help. And I'm going to refer to our role, in particular in Latin America as other regions have have development institutions. And the biggest constraint that we're seeing is this lack of a lack of certainty, mistrust in either law, institutions, currency, you name it. And the interesting part of working with an institution like ours is to try and avoid those risks, mitigating those risks, convincing investors to come into our continent by mitigating those risks. And those risks can be credit related. It could be construction risk. If you're thinking about renewable energy, if you're thinking about building roads, airports, there's a lack concern of construction risk, and we can cover that. But there are many other risks that we see that go to convertibility risk, transferability, risk and a expropriation. There are a number of complex things that we can work together, and we are moving as an institution into a role that we call originate to share. And the concept of originate, to share different from what would be the originate to distribute. And in Wall Street in London, it's we bring in investors and we help them navigate the uncertainty of our continent. So those are two concepts that I wanted to share. Both. Where do we see the constraints and how can we help?
Well, thank you very much indeed. That's very useful to frame the picture. And I'm going to ask our three other panelists to react to that. I've put on my headset because Esther Dweck I believe, is going to speak in Portuguese. So if any of you are not Portuguese speakers, do please find your headset and get ready to listen to that in just a moment. But while you're finding that, I'm going to start, in fact, first with Governor Velarde and ask you, how do you react to what you just heard from James? Because I said earlier, the central Bank governor, central Bank of Peru, has done a remarkable job, and you've won a lot of acclaim across the continent for maintaining an impressive level of monetary stability, even amid extraordinary political and economic turmoil. So I think many people are asking, how have you managed to do that? But as somebody who's not actually in the government per se, how do you try to frame this challenge of creating some certainty in these uncertain times? And what to you is a key, key thing needed to create more investment and productivity of the sort we just heard from James.
Well.
Thank you for the question. I am not so sure about agree completely with what you have said. It depends on the countries. I think the Latin America Central has grown a little more than 2%, but I had a tribal economies have grown very little. Their country has not done so bad, not so good, but not so bad. Mexico 1.7%. Brazil a little more than two. Argentina a little more than two. Peru more than four. Colombia. Chile close to four, actually. So it has not been so different. And as we are sure about uncertainty, an American producer, he doesn't know what he is going to face for inputs. And somebody that is selling imported consumer goods doesn't know what is going to be a tariff at the end. This has changed more that taxes than other countries. In our case, we have maintained the same rules for taxes to enterprises in 1992, a small change in 2016, but basically that the same. Our economy is pretty open at 0.8. That problem we trusted in rule of law and the treaties were signed. We had a treaty with the states. You were talking about Mercosur. We have a free trade agreement with the states that was approved by Congress and supposedly should have been changed only by American Congress. But we have seen we have new tariffs. So I don't see our uncertainty is much higher than other countries. We have had nine presidents. They generate almost has not moved. It moved 1%. One day they need correct. The next day the yield of the bonds have been pretty stable. So in spite of the political volatility, actually growth has not been so bad. So I'm not so sure if that is shared by everybody. A reforms are that of course one institution it was mentioned here, macro stability has been here. We have independent central banks and we have seen very strong critiques to some of these more important central banks. And that governors have continued during the monetary policy in spite of the critiques coming from the president and in spite of some countries having now a little more inflation than before, I would say, compared to the 1780s and early 90s, the situation is much better. And one of the factors that probably has been behind the low growth of Latin America compared to Asia has been macro instability, 7080 with this big fiscal deficits, inflation, etc.. So the situation is not good, but it's not so bad. What we have to build our institutions, right. The presence of the state around the country, better service, better education, and some of the countries that had the best education in the world. Actually, now they have buried in these exams. They are, have very low grades. And I believe if you have a good educated population, you will be prosperous at the end. Right? But you have to invest in that. You have talked too much, right?
Well, thank you. And you make a very good point about relative policy stability, because people used to look at Latin America as a place of policy uncertainty. And these days, by comparison with others, you're looking like a bastion of predictability in many ways. But I'd like to bring in Minister Dweck at this point, who will be speaking in Portuguese. So do please find your headsets. If you don't have Portuguese as one of your many languages. Tell us about Brazil because you are one of the countries that's been fascinating in relation to your northern neighbor, in that you essentially face down President Trump in relation to tariffs and the bullying around the tech sector. I wouldn't say you won necessarily, but you certainly did much better than many other countries in terms of not appeasing too much. And of course, you were at the center of the Eu-mercosur deal. How do you interpret Brazil's challenge around growth at the moment?
Well, first of all, I was speaking Portuguese being broadcasted, and so I prefer saying Portuguese than Portuguese. Primeira agradecer.
Going back to Portuguese, I'd like to thank you for the invitation for being part of this panel. In fact, Brazil has been growing a little more quickly over these past three years than before, closer to the world growth rate, something that had not been going on for at least ten years in Brazil. And this is the result of a combination of policies, including the external Brazilian policy, which has changed a lot with the new Lula administration. Just a brief comment on the relationship with the United States. What Brazil did was to sit and wait, wait and use Brazilian diplomacy, which has always been very prominent. And we talked and we reversed the the situation, at least to minimum standards, still not ideal, but by means of diplomacy and with a certain degree of calm during the absurd moment of tariffs of 50%. At one point, Brazil was the country with the highest tariffs in the world. We managed to wait and with diplomacy, resumed talking to the United States, even at the presidential level, with very good conversations regarding the Mercosur agreement, which started more than 20 years ago, at a moment when Brazil already foresaw a polarization between Asia and the United States, we thought that the ideal partner at that time was the EU, and that made concrete when that became something very clear to the world, I mean, the polarization became even clearer and the agreement with the EU became even more relevant between two blocs that get together at a time when both are under a certain degree of maybe threat, or at least a challenge. What President Lula did when he took office again in Brazil, and I worked in the previous administration, and I'm back now in this third term. It was a combination of the previous terms in a much shorter period of time, and the first two Brazil, the two first Lula administrations, Brazil started to incorporate new growth dynamics, and they were all organized at the same time. So macroeconomically we performed some reorganization, which was very important fiscally in the transition period, the government started to rediscuss the fiscal rules in Brazil, which reduced growth, and it was impossible to be complied with. So we reorganized the budget and brought in distributive policies and public investments, which had hit record lows. So we reorganized the budget and we reorganized the stipend transfer program. And we discussed the fiscal rules. And if we look macroeconomically, we decrease the fiscal deficit very strongly, even with the resumption of income transfers in transfer. And the fiscal deficit was reduced in more than 70%. If we adjust this to the real terms at the beginning of the administration. So we reorganize the budget and we brought back investment policies. And I agree that one of the challenges in the region is to increase investments in. What we have seen in Brazil is that private investment is, Brought forward by public investments. So we have infrastructure investments with concessions. So macroeconomically we have decreased the fiscal deficit, we decreased inflation, and we've managed to have a much more tranquil fiscal landscape still with challenges. And in terms of growth strategies, there was this combination of the Lula administration's number one to and Dilma. Together, we have worked in five growth fronts one, decreasing inequality and redistributing income as a growth engine. And it was not just in spending. Brazil performed a historical feat, which was a fiscal reform in a democratic government, both in in indirect.
Taxes.
The Brazilian fiscal regime was one of the most complicated. And it's stunning into the simplest, one of the simplest ones and something unimaginable ten years ago. Even if Brazil had a very aggressive taxes, the attempt of reversing that never worked out. And in this term we have managed to, decrease taxes for people who have or who make up to, say, $1,000 and to tax more, those who make more than a million reais per year. And this is something new in Brazil. And that was the president's idea to include the poor people in the budget and the rich people in income tax. So from the expenditure point of view, we have a public policies for health and education, generating indirect income for families. The reorganization of the income transfer program and for industrial and trade policies. We resumed more active industrial and commercial policy. So this combination of factors allows for a new base for growth. And I will stop here because of time. But I think that this is, in fact, is the challenge we have worked with in Brazil.
Right. Well thank you. That's very helpful indeed and very striking. I'd like to bring in now, Gracia Gomez Sierra, who has a slightly complicated title. So tell us exactly what you're doing these days, and it's going to be speaking on behalf of Mexico. And Mexico has managed to thus far navigate the very slippery tightrope of dealing with your northern neighbor pretty deftly and impressively. But tell us how you see the outlook for growth right now with Mexico, because of course, we do have a situation where America is trying to suck out a lot of the factories that have been based in Mexico up into the North, which could certainly undermine your growth. And you are under pressure from many sides now. So tell us what you're doing to try and maintain growth.
Thank you. Well, we're excited to be here. So when President Sheinbaum started her campaign in November 2023, she had three main priorities on the regional economic development and nearshoring side. On the one hand, she realized that there was a need to reimagine or transform the relationship that private initiative academics and government had of working together. And so she created this business advisory council that I chair, and that is part of the economic cabinet, and that works very closely together to, to to set industrial policy that can not only spike growth but also shared prosperity. The second thing, or her second conviction, was that the Mexico needed not only a government plan for investment and for growth, but a country plan that had a long term vision of where we wanted to be. And how do we get there, not only with the infrastructure enablers, you know, airports, ports, freight trains, cross-border transit and whatnot, and they give us more competitiveness, but also an infrastructure that gives you welfare, right? Hospitals, schools. ET cetera. ET cetera. And and that all of these should be in one grand plan that had very specific KPIs and that was planned. Mexico. She presented Plan Mexico exactly one year ago. Plan Mexico is a plan that was built with private initiative with the academics in Mexico. It has 13 goals. The first one, the last one are probably the most general and the most ambitious. We want to be one of the top ten economies in the world. We're currently number 12. And and we want to be a country with less poverty and less inequality. The past six years, government policies, particularly the raise in minimum wage, have gotten 13 million people out of poverty in Mexico. And the rest of the the goals, number 2 to 12 is how we intend to get there. And, in some of my fellow panelists have already touched on this. But the goal number two is we want the 25% of our GDP is investment at least by 2026.
25%.
25%, and want to pull it up to 28% by 2030, because that's the only way to break the growth barrier. Right. But we also want that we are, as you know, one of the top six countries with most engineer graduates and Stem graduates in the world. We have more than double than Brazil yearly. We have more per capita than the United States. And we want this graduates to be able to have social mobility and labor mobility. And so we want to link in or link them to specialized manufacturing. And we have some challenges on simplification and digitalization of permits. And so there's a specific goal on that. We want investments to be able to land in Mexico, not in 2.7 years like it is right now, but in one year by the end of the administration. And this is we have a new ministry for simplification, which which its main job is to cut down federal, municipal and local permits and to homolog them. And and when you look at the rest of the goals, they have to do with dual education programs, and they have to do with resilience of supply chains, but they also have to do. And to answer specifically your question and to how we navigate a new world, a new world in which both the paradigm of what we consider to be market economy, but also what we consider to be globalization have fundamentally changed. And where we think Mexico can lead this new wave of both market economies and different ways to understand globalization. Mexico is currently number one producer of heavy duty trucks, number four of Autoparts, number six of light vehicles, number four of medical devices, the only country in Latin America that produces semiconductors, particularly ATP. We're top ten countries in 17 of critical minerals, or the most strategic minerals in the world. We have enormous potential for energy and specifically in renewable energies and transition energies. And so with with the most sophisticated economy in Latin America, the second most sophisticated in the continent, we believe we have a chance not only to specialize, but also to consolidate aerospace industry, also top nine in the world. And so and so to do this, there is industrial policy that has five principles. The first one is how do we include people we've never included before women, young people, small and medium businesses, and south and southeastern part of the country to how do we become more innovative? Because being top ten in many specialized manufacturing, we still have a long way to go in added value. And so how do we incentivize research and development and technology transfer through sustainability and being herself a doctor in energy and sustainability. And we are very committed not only to an energy transition, but also to water efficiency programs, and, and to communities. How do we impact positively communities through business for digitalization, which is one of her main programs, not only to simplify, not only to homolog, but also to give access to better economic, social and cultural rights to Mexicans, housing, transportation and whatnot. And and the last one is regional vocations. And we recognize that free trade should remain as one of the pillars in the world, but also in Mexico. But we also recognize that for free trade to exist, there needs to be fair trade. And we do celebrate that, that policies, even right wing countries are looking at trade from a way that says it needs to get better conditions, labor conditions for the working class people. The standard minimum wage of living needs to provide enough quality of life and social mobility, and there needs to be a fight, a fight together to eradicate self-evaluation, subsidized production and technical contraband. And so that is kind of the policy that we've been following. And we think there are enormous perspectives and we can land this correctly.
Right. It's very interesting because I hear common themes here from all of you about trying to one double down on the fact you have relative policy stability compared to your northern neighbor. Secondly, that industrial policy is back in fashion. And, you know, in some ways it never went away. But now, as the IMF says, the policy that had no name now has a name and people are embracing it. Perhaps you're more experienced in some ways than that than others. Thirdly, that as part of that you are very self-consciously all of you trying to adapt to the new reality of the fact that the free market globalization paradigm is no longer dominant. And fourth, that you're looking at things like digitalization and inclusion as a very strong theme. So I'd like to bring in now, Mora and ask you from the perspective of the private sector, and you are the only private sector representative on the panel, does this convincing to you in terms of what is actually going to unleash growth? And since, of course, you are uncomfortably close to the recent dramatic events in Venezuela, and because we've seen the risk premium in the markets go up for Latin America on the back of what's happened in Venezuela, how does that impact your outlook for Colombia and the area right now?
Thank you. Good morning everybody. It's for me a pleasure to be in this panel. And let me let me elaborate a little bit on what has been said in this in this panel. And you commented, you started in your introduction asking if Latin America can grow or not. And I think that's not the right question. The right question is how Latin America can grow more. And James mentioned and other panelists mentioned all the assets that Latin America has to, to grow and its natural resources. I mean, minerals, industrial policies, Mexico lead in Brazil, and the big examples in the region that other countries need to follow. And if you analyze this decade 2020 to now, I mean, we started with the pandemic, then the inflation cycle. Then, there is a lot of volatility on commodities, but the region did fairly well. I mean, it's not enough. Definitely. It's not enough. And that's why what is the question. How we can grow more more than 2%. More than 3%. We need to be growing at least at least at 5 or 6%. So the question is why are not growing more than that? That five that 3%? The the recent forecast of the IMF is 2.2 for the region in 2026. So still in 2027 again is 2.52.6. So we are not doing that. And and the point is that we are trapped in the middle of what Foreign Policy magazine calls the new international disorder. We are in the middle of what is going on around the world and geopolitics. It's a region with its own challenges, but we are in the middle. So at the end, what we have to do is how do we have a region as the assets that we have, how we can play a role on that international disorder in order to be benefit from that, how the region is going to align or not in the different, players, it's the US is China is both. Probably that's the best way the region to go. How to play, to be, not completely aligned, but to benefit from from both, players in the world and, the private sector. And you said, I'm representing here the private sector. I mean, the private sector is key, but what we have inside the region is also a political volatility that is creating, a lot of barriers to for growth, that instability. And James mentioned the lack of trust, the uncertainty about the rules, taxes, if the rules are going to be set for mid and long term and governments play their key role. And let me say that integration among Latin America is key. There have been several attempts. The Pacific Alliance is one of them, between Chile, Peru, Mexico and Colombia. If you see it now, it's a failure. But it's a it's the kind of things that we need to do inside region and, and private sector could play a role there. I have several, fellow, private sector leaders understanding that that kind of alliances among different countries is key, but we need to have a common ground to do business among the region. And that's that's not happening because of political instability. But in general, we have a very, eager private sector that wants to work with governments to invest in infrastructure. It's a big opportunity that we need that definitely. And we heard some examples of how infrastructure could help develop a lot of opportunities in the region. But that work with with the governments private sector and the role that multilateral agencies are going to play in the region is key, and they are having difficult times playing a role. IDB invest CAF is also key in the region to integrate and to develop, opportunities among the region.
Well, of course, Europe is also trying to work out how it can actually integrate because these days, you know, strength in collaboration and numbers is absolutely critical, as you say, in this era of new international disorder.
But you ask about Venezuela. And so I am going to pass on that.
Well, I was going to ask you because very quickly you say that you're worried about political instability. Are you more worried about internal political instability or geopolitical instability? What is the biggest challenge right now?
If I have to choose more internal instability, the lack of of, stable rules, clear tax strategies, and the, the rule of law in our countries, I think is key. So right now I am more worried about internal instability than external instability.
I would like to ask whether our Brazilian and Mexican representatives would agree with that. Are you more concerned about internal instability or international instability?
Okay. In those moments, yes.
I understand your position from two perspective. In terms of Brazil, the external geopolitics aspects is more of an impact because of a series of actions that, hinder Brazil. And of course, what happened in Venezuela is kind of a threat to the region. And all of that is is a bit problematic. But at one point that was brought. which means that there was a change in terms of internal political stability, is that before when there was a shift in government, we didn't have as much of instability. And now with these changes, sometimes we stop having relationships with other countries, for example, Brazil and Argentina. We now have trade issues. This didn't used to happen before with political shifts. And one point which is important is the integration of Latin America in order for us to have more growth. Now, Latin America is less integrated compared to other parts of the world. Perhaps it's similar to Africa, but the internal potential. We have to focus on three areas which we have to integrate infrastructure. And we've been working on a project to integrate that infrastructure. But looking more at export, corridors and not internal integration, then productivity production has to be more integrated. And also social policies have to be better integrated. And that lack of integration, I think hinders our growth potential. So that aspect is very relevant in my opinion.
What about from this perspective? I mean, are you more concerned about international instability than internal instability.
So so Mexico has kind of been an outlier in Latin America for the past maybe 20 years, or even a bit more in terms of macro stability. Right. We have an independent central bank. We have inflation that is, very much stable. No, it has gone up in 2021, 2022 as so did in the world. But it has a it has a very technical elements to deal with macro stability, particularly at a monetary level and at a fiscal level even. We're probably one of the countries that has the best ratio, debt to GDP, and not only in Latin America, but even in the OCD. Yes.
And the G7. I think you beat the G7.
And if you look at all all the other factors, right, we have the second lowest level of unemployment in the OCD. We where there is macro stability and but that is not to say that there is not a huge challenge and a huge opportunity. And probably as a minister of Brazil just mentioned, we have a huge opportunity in infrastructure. We're we're currently, yes, the 12th economy, but the number 59 in logistical competitiveness. And so there is a huge bridge, you can still walk through if, if there is mixed investment rules, on key infrastructure that we can grow. Obviously the number two is the coordination that is needed being a federation and being, you know, 32 different local entity plus 2500 municipalities, that is a challenge to align priority towards our key projects. And that has always been a challenge to navigate, particularly for investors. And this is why going digital is particularly important. This is why, it's particularly a priority. And and number three and it was also mentioned by Brazil. It was a productivity. Mexico has made it a point to change labor laws so that again we can increase over 100%, minimum wage in the last five years. And, and this has brought the strengthening of the inner market. It has increased consumption. It has done many good things. Right. But it is also key to increase productivity and so added value within the region. And what we can do to innovate and to incorporate technology changes will be particularly important going forward.
Well, thank you very much indeed. I've got a lot more questions, but I realize we're almost out of time, and I do want to give the audience a chance to comment or ask any questions. Unless there's anything that either of you want to bring in quickly and say, before we go, we have a question over here. If you could possibly stand up so the cameras can catch you. That'd be very helpful.
Thank you very much.
Please keep it very short and very briefly. Introduce yourself.
We have been talking about innovation, productivity and many more topics regarding breaking the ceiling. So I would like to know what do you think is the role of technology in each single one of your countries for the coming years?
Well, that's going to be quite a lot of, quite a lot of answers. But listen, let's quickly ask if there are any other burning questions over here, and then we'll put them together and let everyone comment briefly for about a minute at the end. We've got a question over here, I think. What about technology in the AI boom?
I'm going to tech direction. I represent the Brazilian company that is one of the largest tech company in Latin America so far. So what is your how do you envision to create big techs in Latin America, technology companies that can promote our vision, values and culture around the world through technology?
Okay, well, listen, let's keep on that tech theme then. We've only got, unfortunately, about four minutes left, so you'll have to be very quick. But perhaps we can start with Brazil, because Brazil, of course, has been in the line of fire when it comes to tech. Can Brazil create its own versions of X or other big tech companies?
It sounds like Das Empresas Brasileiras.
Yes, we have an important Brazilian company here. In terms of industrial policies, one of the crucial aspects is digitalization and digital sovereignty. Brazilian has been talking about this and how to advance in our industrial policy. We have six priorities, and one of these is specifically looking at technology. both for the Brazilian productive sector, which needs to be more automated, but also in the public sector. We have been working very strongly on fostering Brazilian companies in this area, also establishing partnerships with foreign companies. So this is one of the priorities for industrial policy.
Can Mexico create a big tech?
So chapter two of Plan Mexico is is decided on that, specifically on AI. And it also has four pillars, as you know, the first one has to do with infrastructure. The second one has to do with education. The third one has to do with industrial policy, and specifically the role that development banks are going to play to accelerate this kind of companies or big tech companies. And the fourth one has to do with, how do we bring investments and specialization zones? And we've created, on the one hand, the biggest, upskilling bootcamp of 25,000 people yearly, with the 60 biggest companies and hyperscalers in 28 different tracks of AI starting this January, actually. And, and they also have a plan for different, data centers and national AI laboratory and digital identity and stacks. And so, yeah.
You're fighting for it. James. I see you want to come in.
I think there is no question when it comes to the opportunities on technology in Latin America and the Caribbean, if you think about it on the productivity side, if you're thinking about the development angle, integration technology is the only way in which this can be solved, right? And that's why we particularly have strong investment. We have an entity called IDB lab that invests in in upskilling technology. But I think the biggest competitive advantage that you're going to have now in Latin America and the Caribbean is data centers. I mean, we have access to cheap renewable energy that would create enormous opportunities. Recently in Argentina, there was billions of dollars announced the new data centers. I do think that those are tremendous opportunities.
Well, we got about two minutes left. I'm going to go 30s very quick.
Technology has been playing a key role in Latin America already. And it's going to play a role, a key role in the future. Let me talk about the financial sector. Financial inclusion in Latin America has advanced a lot on top of technology digitalization. We have many examples. Fintechs are growing, and we have there a good potential of developing new big companies. That not is not going to be in the region, but outside the region. We have some examples. So, but we have challenges. I mean, definitely the introduction of new technologies are going to boost productivity, but also we will, require upskilling of many, many workers. That will be a challenge. But Latin America is going to, develop or look for opportunities for growth on top of, of of technology.
Governor Velarde, do you have much optimism about the digitization of finance?
Of course, for the world, I would say in ten, 50 years, probably, we will see a different world because of the intelligence.
I'm not so sure how much we will benefit. I probably would benefit a lot, but it's hard to say now. But we need more education in this case and something pretty important as we have become older. Before becoming richer, we have to see how artificial intelligence affects work. Without a in in country you can have a basic income in your case net, but that will not be the case. Probably something that you could do in agriculture with, but not natural resources like mining. But they will be still be scarce and you will have some render and finish.
Well, thank you very quickly. This has been a fascinating discussion. I'm sorry you've had so little time to talk about this, but the key themes that emerge is that one, everyone agrees that the growth rate has not been so bad, but needs to be increased. Secondly, industrial policy is back with a vengeance. Thirdly, that in a world of increased turmoil and turbulence as a middle group, you're trying to navigate both sides. You all agree that you need to hang together and integrate like Europe has the same challenges. You're all finding it very hard again, like Europe, unfortunately. And fourth, everyone agrees that digitization is going to be central to this, but no one yet appears to have the magic sauce to actually make it happen. So I'll just finish by saying thank you all very much indeed. Your message is very important right now, and very best of luck in navigating these difficult, turbulent times which may become even more turbulent after today. So thank you.
Thank you.