Enrique Iglesias
President, Inter-American Development Bank
Washington, D.C., USA
Advisor for the International Year of Microcredit 2005

"The money sent home by workers living outside their home country is one of the most dynamic and promising forces for development. These funds can provide housing for families left behind, sustenance for the elderly and infirm, better schooling and capital for small businesses. The Year is an important opportunity to enhance the power of these remittances, and promote the conversion of those resources into microfinance products, which, with their multiplier effect over consumption, can have a significant impact on poverty reduction."

Enrique V. Iglesias was re-elected president of the Inter-American Development Bank on November 8, 2002. He began his fourth five-year term on April 1, 2003. Prior to his election as president of the IDB, Iglesias was Uruguay’s Minister of Foreign Relations, (1985-1988); Executive Secretary of the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), (1972-1985); Secretary General of the U.N. Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy, held in Kenya in 1981; and chairman of the conference that launched the Uruguay Round of international trade negotiations in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in 1986. he served as President of Uruguay’s Central Bank from 1966 to 1968.

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