In recent years, economic opportunities have become the main force driving relationships in the Western Hemisphere. While political cooperation has stumbled, robust trade and financial engagement have been shown to be the best foundation for stronger partnerships between the countries of the region. But Latin American nations face enormous challenges in strengthening their international competitiveness, assuring their position in global finance and trade flows, and achieving equitable growth.
The Inter-American Dialogue seeks to encourage further economic integration and cooperation by building a better understanding of the major trends affecting trade, foreign investment, and economic development in the Americas.
Even if we’re not seeing the multi-billion dollar lending that we saw in the past, there are a lot of ... commercial banks and other financial institutions that are providing finance, either directly to Chinese companies or sometimes to Latin American companies, or even Latin American governments for specific projects.
It's all very well to talk about investment but US and European companies are shedding their assets in Latin America .... We have to create incentives for them to stay.