Montego Bay, Jamaica – Dr. Terri-Karelle Reid, event host, author and  Jamaican media personality, conducted an in-depth interview with the President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Ilan GoldFajn on Day 2 of the Outsource2lac Global Digital Services Summit held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, St. James, Jamaica on June 14-15, 2023. The event, organized by Inter-American Development Bank and the Government of Jamaica, sought to discover the latest global trends and innovations in digital services and technologies in Latin America and the Caribbean. The 40-minute interview with President Goldfajn spoke to the IDB’s impact on the economies as well as the importance of knowledge-based service sectors and the growing demand in the region.

The IDB is a multilateral development bank that has been working to promote development in Latin America and the Caribbean for over 60 years. The summit, which focused on promoting outsourcing and offshoring opportunities in the region’s digital services industry, provided an excellent platform for the IDB to showcase its commitment to supporting economic growth and development in the region.

During the interview, Reid quizzed the IDB President about the bank’s priorities, strategies, and initiatives aimed at promoting economic growth and development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The President highlighted the importance of digital transformation in the region and the IDB’s commitment to supporting the growth of the digital services industry. He also spoke of the importance of data and evidence to add context and conversation to the global issues that we are facing such as food security.

“The digital services industry has the potential to drive economic growth and job creation in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said the IDB President. “We do have talented people. Here in Jamaica and the rest of the region.  But, if we don’t have enough, we are going to train them, we are going to skill them so that’s why I think this conference enters into what we truly need. Productivity, jobs, inclusion, gender, diversification of exports and integration. They are all aligned to what we need in the Caribbean and the Latin American region.”

He continued, “People are not born trained. They are born with innate potential, but we need to give them skills. So, a development bank like the IDB is to be in the business of having projects to provide skills to the ones that don’t have the training,” he shared.

Reid also touched on the topic of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the region. The President highlighted the IDB’s commitment to promoting gender equality and its efforts to support the breakdown of gender biases all around. “We need to make it very clear that the growth engine includes people.” In order for digitalization to thrive we need everybody included. If everybody isn’t included, then how can you benefit from the digital transformation?”

He continued. “At the IDB every project has to have a gender and diversity component. Are we getting more women involved in that? In the MSME’s that we promote, are those the ones that have more women leading to reduce the gender bias? In addition to connecting everybody we need to have an active policy of including more people,” GoldFajn stated.

The interview with the IDB President was well-received by attendees of the summit, who noted the bank’s commitment to supporting economic growth and development in Latin America and the Caribbean region.

“Terri-Karelle Reid did an excellent job in conducting the interview with the IDB President,” said one attendee. “It was great to hear about the bank’s commitment to supporting the digital services industry, the impact that it has made so far in the region and what the entity is doing to promote gender equality in the region.”

In his closing remarks GoldFajn praised Dr.Terri-Karelle Reid and her spirit of resilience in the wake of per past career setbacks and how she triumphed on the world stage. “Thank you for all your effort and for your resilience too. Your career, your success is a show of resilience and that is something we need in our career…resilience, resilience in our families, resilience in our countries and resilience in our region,” he ended.

The Outsource2lac Global Digital Services Summit was attended by over 650 participants from around the world, including business leaders, policymakers, and investors. The event provided an opportunity for attendees to learn about the latest trends and opportunities in the digital services industry in Latin America and the Caribbean. The full event can be viewed here.

Overall, the interview with the IDB President was a key highlight of the summit, providing attendees bother virtually and in person with valuable insights not only to what he bank has been doing in the region to date but also into the bank’s priorities, strategies, and initiatives aimed at promoting economic growth and development in the region.