José Antonio Ocampo Gaviria

In 2022, José Antonio Ocampo Gaviria was appointed as minister of finance and public credit for the Republic of Colombia, a position which he also held between 1996 and 1997. During his first term, he sponsored one of the Inter-American Development Bank forums, which took place in Paipa, Colombia. Likewise, during that time, he led the largest issue of public debt bonds in the international markets, with the best credit conditions of the time. Facing high demand, Ocampo decided, together with the investment bank, to make the first 30-year issue. Prior to that, he held various high-level positions including minister of agriculture, director of the National Planning Department and co-director of the Banco de la República.

On an international level, he has also held other important positions such as executive secretary of the United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and deputy secretary general for economic and social affairs of the UN, becoming the Colombian holding the highest position in this body. In the UN agencies, he introduced some reforms in economic and social matters, such as the constitution of a permanent committee of experts in international tax cooperation and the creation of the Development Cooperation Forum. He has also served as director of Fedesarrollo, director of the Rural Mission, president of the Committee for Development Policies of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and president of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation.

Ocampo has also been a professor at the University of Los Andes, the National University, and Columbia University, where he was also co-chair of the Policy Dialogue Initiative and member of the Global Thought Committee. He has written three textbooks on Colombian economics including his best-seller Historia económica de Colombia, with at least 20 editions published. The most recent edition, published in 2015 with the Fondo de Cultura Económica, is still widely used as a university text. His other books are are Introduction to Colombian Macroeconomics and The Economic Development of Latin America Since Independence.

An economist and sociologist from the University of Notre Dame, Ocampo has a PhD in Economics from Yale University. Ocampo has received distinctions such as the Jaume Vicens Vives Prize from the Spanish Association of Economic History in 2012, the Leontief Prize for the Advancement of the Frontiers of Thought Economic in 2009, and the Alejandro Ángel Escobar National Science Award in Colombia in 1988. Moreover, the National University of Colombia and the Complutense University of Madrid awarded him an Honoris Causa Doctorate. His research areas include macroeconomic theory and policy, international financial affairs, economic and social development, international trade, and the economic history of Colombia and Latin America.

Ocampo was an event speaker at the Dialogue.