Luis Alberto Moreno, IDB: "We Can't Miss the Train of the Technological Revolution"
Luis Alberto Moreno, IDB: "We Can't Miss the Train of the Technological Revolution"
The IDB president spoke to SoftBank Group International's CEO in a BRAVO Leadership Conversation.
September 8, 2020– "We can’t miss the train of the technological revolution. The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the need to do much, much more in this space,” said Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in a new Council of the Americas’ BRAVO Leadership Conversations. In a dynamic conversation with SoftBank Group International's CEO Marcelo Claure, both discussed the issues affecting Latin America, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region and Moreno’s 15-years tenure leading the IDB. Watch the conversation.
Claure said that technology during the pandemic is going to massively accelerate trends that have taken years to develop, such as telemedicine and online learning. “I'm a big believer that technology during the pandemic will have a massive change.” Claure also believes that Latin American entrepreneurs only lack venture capital, not talent: “Latin America has the necessary ecosystem in order for these new companies to continue to disrupt and innovate traditional business models.”
On how countries have responded to the pandemic, Moreno said there is no magic formula other than coordination and discipline at federal, state, and local levels. “If they are not all coordinated, bad things begin to happen.”
Moreno leaves the IDB after a 15-year tenure as President, during which he transformed the organization to become the leading source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. He said the most critical thing going forward in the region will be the amount of change: “We're entering a phase of the world that is very unpredictable, that can go in many different directions.” On leadership, Moreno said what makes a good leader is the people they’re able to assemble: “I don’t think any leader is successful without a good team.”
This conversation was part of the 2020 COA Symposium and BRAVO Virtual Series: Leadership and Transformation in Times of Crisis. The series addresses the unprecedented challenges brought globally and regionally by the pandemic, as well as the various responses across sectors and stakeholders to reshape the post COVID-19 world.
Join the discussion on Twitter #BRAVObiz | @ASCOA
The BRAVO Virtual Series is sponsored by:
Bank of America, The AES Corporation, Mastercard, SAP and Softtek
Supporting partner: CHUBB Latin America, HSBC Securities, Inc., and Microsoft
In partnership with: the Inter-American Development Bank
Media Partner: CNN en Español, Financial Times, and Americas Quarterly
Press inquiries: mediarelations@as-coa.org
