While taking part in the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland, Colombia’s finance minister on Friday confirmed that the president of the World Bank will visit Colombia in mid-2013.
Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas confirmed in a tweet that World Bank president Jim Yong Kim will visit Colombia sometime in the middle of this year.
Con el presidente Kim del @worldbank quien confirmó visita a Colombia a mediados de año. yfrog.com/esg01otj
— Mauricio Cárdenas S. (@MauricioCard) January 25, 2013
The future visit should not come as a surprise given the close relationship the Colombian government and the World Bank have been cultivating through the “Country Partnership Strategy” (CPS). The CPS is an “integrated program of financial, knowledge, and convening services” that spans from 2012 to 2014 and is designed to support Colombia’s National Development Plan (NDP). In 2012, the World Bank loaned the Colombian government $200 million as part of the plan, in recognition of the government’s “sound fiscal management”, and a further $150 million to assist with urban development.
Background: World Bank loans Colombia $150M for urban development
Cardenas also tweeted that he had spent time with the Lloyd Blankfein, the chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the largest investment banking firms in the world.
Tuvimos interesante encuentro con Lloyd Blankfein y Mike Evans, cabezasde @goldmansachs en @davos yfrog.com/nzg8medj
— Mauricio Cárdenas S. (@MauricioCard) January 25, 2013
Blankfein is quite the controversial figure these days due to his firm’s contribution to the 2008 global financial collapse. Carl Levin, the chairman of a United States senate panel responsible for investigating the causes of the collapse, commented in 2011 that the investigation found “a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest, and wrongdoing.”
The WEF convenes each year and claims to provide a space in which political and business leaders, prominent members of civil society and intellectuals, can discuss global challenges and methods to tackle them.
